Comparison of the effectiveness of mindfulness therapy based on stress reduction and electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex (TDCS) in improving anxiety symptoms of students with test anxiety

Test anxiety is one of the most common psychological problems in the study period and has important psychological consequences. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of stress-based mindfulness therapy and direct electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex in improving anxiety symptoms in students with test anxiety. This study was a quasi-experimental study with a control group and pre-test, post-test and follow-up design. The statistical population included all students with anxiety disorder in the first year of high school in Ashkzar in 2020, 48 of whom were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and a control group. To collect data, Friedman (1997) test anxiety questionnaire was performed on both experimental groups. Experiment group "A" received 8 sessions of one-hour mindfulness intervention based on stress reduction and experimental group "B" received 10 sessions of 20 minutes of direct electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex, during which the control group did not receive treatment. At the end of the interventions, post-test was performed again in all three groups and finally a two-month follow-up was performed. The results showed that mindfulness therapy based on stress reduction and direct stimulation of the cerebral cortex were both effective in improving anxiety symptoms (p<0.05). Compared to the two methods on reducing test anxiety symptoms, the effectiveness of stress-based mindfulness was stronger. According to the results, mindfulness-based techniques and direct stimulation of the cerebral cortex can be used to reduce students' test anxiety symptoms.