Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Behavioral Activation Therapy on Cognitive Avoidance and Emotion Regulation in People with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive therapy based on mindfulness and behavioral activation therapy on cognitive avoidance and emotion regulation in people with generalized anxiety disorder.
The research was of an applied type, with a semi-experimental method with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population included all the people suffering from generalized anxiety disorder in Mashhad in 2019, out of which 45 samples were selected from the Pulse of Life Psychotherapy Clinic and divided into 3 groups of 15 people (2 experimental groups and 1 control group). Randomly replaced and in three stages of pre-test, post-test and follow-up, they responded to the general anxiety disorder scale of Spitzer et al. (2006), cognitive avoidance by Sexton and Dagas (2008) and emotional regulation difficulty by Gertz and Romes (2004). The first group received 8 sessions of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy by Kabat-Zinn et al. (1992) and the second group received 8 sessions of behavioral activation therapy by Dimigian et al. (2008) and the control group did not receive any treatment. The data was analyzed using Spss statistical software.
The results of analysis of variance with repeated measurement showed that both treatments were effective on cognitive avoidance and emotion regulation of the sample (p<0.05), but there is no significant difference in the effect of the two methods (p<0.227).
Both treatments can be used to reduce the psychological problems of people with generalized anxiety disorder