The effects of cognitive behavioral therapy and unified transdiagnostic therapy on the emotional regulation of adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder

The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy(CBT) and unified transdiagnostic treatment on the cognitive-emotional regulation of adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder. The quasi-experimental study was carried out with a pre-test-post-test design, with a control group and a two-month follow-up. The statistical population included all teenagers who were referred to Khorramabad counseling centers between December 1400 and July 1401, and who received a definitive diagnosis of GAD from the psychologist and psychiatrist of the center. 45 people were purposive sampling method selected and placed in two experimental groups and one control group(15 people in each group). The first and second experimental groups, respectively, received unified transdiagnostic treatment and CBT during 12 sessions. The research tools were cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire(GERQ) (Garnefski & et al,2006). The data were analyzed by the method of analysis of variance with repeated measurements and Bonferroni’s post hoc test. The results showed that both unified transdiagnostic treatment and cbt significantly increased adaptive emotion regulation and decreased maladaptive emotion regulation compared to the control group(P<0.01) and the effect of both intervention methods remained until the follow-up stage (2 months). Also, there is no significant difference between the effects of the two methods (P>0.01). Thus, an important step can be taken in reducing the consequences caused by the lack of emotion cognitive regulation in GAD by using any of the therapeutic approaches of CBT and unified transdiagnostic for emotion regulation in adolescents with GAD.