The effectiveness of group cognitive-behavioral therapy on increasing of resilience of disabled war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Eight years of imposed war between Iran and Iraq has caused a considerable number of soldiers and disabled war veterans to experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

This applied study was conducted in the form of a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design and a control group at Sadr Psychiatric Hospital in Tehran during the year 2017-18. A total of 30 disabled war veterans with PTSD were selected through an available sampling method, and were divided into two groups: an experimental and a control group. The experimental group underwent cognitive-behavioral therapy for 14 sessions. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21) was used for data collection, Data were analyzed with the aid of SPSS 21 software and a univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to eliminate the pretest effect. And Levene’s test was used to homogenize variances.

After modifying pretest scores, the difference between the experimental and control groups became significant. Based on the one-way ANCOVA carried out on the subjects’ total scores, there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the variable “anxiety” (P < 0.05) and (F 8/227).

This intervention showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy had increased resilience among disabled war veterans with PTSD.