Comparison of the effectiveness of combined metacognitive therapy with transcranial electrical stimulation on reducing anxiety in chronic tinnitus sufferers

One of the most common mental problems among tinnitus patients is anxiety. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of combined metacognitive therapy with transcranial electrical stimulation on reducing anxiety in chronic tinnitus sufferers.

The research design was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group, and the statistical population included all patients with tinnitus who referred to Rizvan Afshar Hearing Evaluation Center in Arak city in 1401. The size of the statistical sample was 30 people (15 people in the experimental group and 15 people in the control group) from the mentioned statistical population, who were selected by available sampling method and randomly placed in two control and experimental groups. During 8 sessions, the experimental group was first subjected to transcranial electrical stimulation for 20 minutes and immediately underwent metacognitive therapeutic intervention for 60 minutes, and the control group received only their usual treatment (transcranial electrical stimulation). In this research, Beck's anxiety questionnaire was used to collect data. In order to statistically analyze the obtained data, univariate analysis of covariance test was used.

The mean of scores of anxiety before and after the intervention in the experimental group were 11.13 and 7.20, respectively, and in the control group, 11.40 and 8.53, respectively. The results of covariance analysis showed that the mean anxiety in the experimental group has decreased significantly (P<0.01) after the combined intervention of metacognitive therapy with transcranial electrical stimulation in comparison with the control group.

The results of this research indicate that the combined intervention of metacognitive therapy with transcranial electrical stimulation has significantly improved anxiety, so the use of this intervention is recommended for chronic tinnitus sufferers