Comparing the Effectiveness of Metacognitive Therapy and Prolonged Exposure Therapy on Reduction of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in War Veterans with Chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Due to the high prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms in veterans, the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy as a new treatment with long-term exposure therapy as a recommended and conventional treatment in the treatment of war veterans with chronic PTSD and symptoms of anxiety and depression as comorbidity.

This quasi-experimental study with a control group (waiting for treatment) was performed as a pre-test and post-test with a follow-up of 3 months on 57 veterans referring to some psychiatric wards of military hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Seventeen people were randomly assigned to the experimental group 1 (receiving metacognitive therapy), 17 to the experimental group 2 (receiving long-term exposure therapy) and 23 to the control group. Research tolls included, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Index (PCL-M - Military Edition), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI-II), and a demographic Researcher-made questionnaire.

By considering the matching of the groups, the findings showed that the effectiveness of both interventions on reducing depression and anxiety symptoms was the same. However, there was a significant difference between the groups receiving metacognitive therapy and long-term exposure therapy with the control group in the field of variables, which indicates the effectiveness of both therapeutic interventions on the variables (P=0.001).

The current findings showed that metacognitive therapy can also be considered one of the most effective new therapeutic interventions in the field of chronic PTSD caused by war along with other psychological therapies of PTSD (long-term exposure therapy).