Effectiveness of Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on the Reduction Anxiety Sensitivity and Panic Attacks in Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy on the reduction of anxiety sensitivity and panic attacks in veterans with PTSD. This study was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test with control group, The population of the study consisted all male Veterans in Marand in the year of 2019, among whom a sample of 30 veterans with PTSD were randomly selected to two groups of experimental (15 male) and control (15 male). Measurement tools included were posttrumatic stress disorder checklist (military version), Anxiety Sensitivity (Reiss, Peterson, Gursky & McNally, 1986) and Symptom panic (Liebowitz & et al, 1990). Then, trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy were performed for 12 sessions (90 minutes in per session) each week for the experimental group. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 using multiple covariance analysis. After controlling the effects of pretest, the mean scores of anxiety sensitivity and panic attacks were significantly higher in the experimental group than the control group (p<0.001). Training trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy education can be effective reduces anxiety sensitivity and panic attacks in veterans with PTSD.