Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions in the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Although the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is supported by researchers, controlled studies show that each of these methods only partially serves to treat this disorder. Therefore, this study aimed at achieving the effect size of cognitive-behavioral interventions on the treatment of GAD and investigating other effective factors in the effectiveness of this treatment.
The present study is a systematic review and meta-analysis research model. For this purpose, 480 articles with the relevant titles, using cognitive-behavioral treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (seperately and in combination) as the keywords, were obtained through searching in the valid scientific databases. 21 articles were selected through a meta-analysis checklist, and the data (extracted from the texts of these articles) were analyzed using the meta-analysis method.
The results showed the effect size (ES) of cognitive-behavioral interventions (Cohen's d=1.018) is large according to the Cohen's table (Cohen's d≥0.8). Also, there was no statistical significant difference in comparing the effect sizes obtained from using different tools, individual or group therapy, and age groups (p>0.05).
The findings of this meta-analysis showed a “large” ES for cognitive-behavioral interventions on the treatment of GAD. Also, based on the sub-analyses results, group CBT can be used as the first line therapy for middle-aged GAD patients and individual CBT for elderly GAD patients.