The Effect of Metacognitive Therapy on Reducing Anxiety and Depression among Patients with Traumatic Stress Disorder

Introduction: Metacognitive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been developed based on the role of meta-cognitive processes and beliefs in anxiety disorders. In this study, the effectiveness of meta-cognitive therapy on PTSD has been investigated. Method: This quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test was carried out. The sample consisted of patients with PTSD who referred to Professor Moharri Hospital in Shiraz (N=12). Participants were selected using a structured clinical interview (SCID-I). Sample subjects underwent individual meta-cognitive therapy in 10 sessions. Depression, Stress, and Anxiety Scale was used as a measurement tool in pretest, posttest and follow up. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and dependent t-test. Results: According to the results,learning metacognitive skills and coping strategies of metacognition reduces the symptoms of mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression and tension in people with PTSD (p<0.05). Conclusion: Metacognitive therapy is an effective therapeutic approach that has resulted from systematic modeling and hypothesis and has resulted in techniques whose effectiveness in scientific studies has been proved.