Effectiveness of metacognitive therapy in reducing the signs and symptoms of patients suffering from General Anxiety Disorder

Introduction: The present study was done to compare the effectiveness of meta-cognitive therapy (MCT) with the control group in the treatment of general anxiety disorder (GAD) and meta-cognitive beliefs. Method: This research was a randomized controlled clinical trial study. They were initially screened according to general anxiety inventory, and then 30 participants who met the exclusion-inclusion criteria were selected and randomly assigned to two groups of meta-cognitive therapy and control group (15 in each group). The population of the study was comprised from the pretest, posttest with a one month follow up design and a control group by a GAD scale and a meta-cognitive questionnaire. The experimental groups received 8 sessions of meta-cognition therapy while the control group did not receive any interventions. Data were entered into the SPSS Ver. 18 and analyzed by repeated measurements, Paired T Test, Independent T Test. Results: A significant efficacy was observed in reducing GAD and meta-cognitive scale and also a significant effect size (ES) was observed among the meta-cognition group. Also the level of effectiveness in meta-cognition therapy was significant. The highest rates of recovery were related to the scales of GAD (ES=2.38) and meta-cognitive beliefs (ES=2.38) respectively. Conclusion: Meta-cognition therapy can be considered as one of the treatment strategies for general anxiety disorder in comparison to the control group due to significant efficacies. All this is because MCT targets worry as a key cognitive feature of GAD and reduces the symptoms of GAD.