The effectiveness of schema therapy on primary maladaptive schemas and illness perception in people with generalized anxiety disorder

The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of schema therapy on primary maladaptive schemas and disease perception in people with generalized anxiety disorder in Tabriz city in 2022.

The current research was a semi-experimental type that was conducted using a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research included all patients suffering from generalized anxiety who referred to psychiatric clinics and after diagnosis by a psychiatrist, 30 of them were randomly selected from among the statistical population and divided into two experimental groups and Controls (15 people for each group) were replaced. Patients with generalized anxiety disorder completed questionnaires of primary maladaptive schemas and disease perception as pre-test and post-test, and treatment based on schema therapy was performed on the subjects during a period of 12 sessions (one session per week). The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics methods including mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics including multivariate covariance analysis in SPSS software.

Based on the findings, schema therapy has been effective in reducing primary maladaptive schemas and disease perception in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (p<0.01).

Based on the findings of this research, it can be concluded that schema therapy as an effective intervention can be used for patients with generalized anxiety disorder along with drug therapy.