The effect of medication and combined medication and acceptance and commitment therapy on anxiety, worry, experiential avoidance and psychological hardiness in women with generalized anxiety disorder

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of medication and combined medication and ACT on anxiety, worry, experiential avoidance and psychological hardiness of women with GAD. This was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design with experimental and control groups. The present study population consisted of all women with GAD in Fereydunshahr city in the summer of 2017. Thirty women were purposefully selected as a sample and randomly assigned to three equal groups (10 people in each group). Medication was prescribed for all affected women, for at least a five-week period, and in combined intervention group, 8 one-hour sessions of ACT was performed individually. The Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger et al., 1983), Penn State Worry Questionnaire (Meyer et al., 1990), Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (Gámez et al., 2011) and Psychological Hardiness Questionnaire (Kobasa et al., 1982) were administered before and after treatment. Covariance analysis was used for data analysis. The results showed that both medication and combined interventions in the experimental groups decreased the mean scores of anxiety, worry, and experiential avoidance, and increased the mean scores of psychological hardiness. Also, there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the variables of experimental avoidance and psychological hardiness (P <0.05), and combined medication and ACT were more effective in these variables. According to the findings of this study, combined medication and ACT are more effective than medication in reducing GAD-related symptoms and features in women.