The comparison of the efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and progressive counting on anxiety, depression, and stress in patients with coronary artery bypass graft surgery

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Progressive Counting (PC) on anxiety, stress, and depression in patients with coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). A quasi-experimental design was used to analyze the data which included a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. The statistical population included all patients with coronary artery bypass graft surgery referred to the rehabilitation clinic of Tehran Heart Center and were selected using available sampling based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thirty-six randomly selected patients were divided into two experimental groups and one control group (N=12 in each group). In the experimental group of EMDR, each patient underwent this treatment individually in six 45- minute sessions and the same was carried out for PC. The control group received no treatment. The research instruments included a revised version of the Impact of Event Scale (IES-R, Weiss & Marmar, 1997), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21, Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995), which were performed on patients in all three groups in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. Data analyzed using MANCOVA. The results showed that EMDR and PC were both effective in reducing depression and stress symptoms. Also, the results did not show any significant differences between the two experimental groups (P<0,01).