Clinical Study Overview - Is CBT better for Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

As per a recent study review it was found that cognitive-behavioral therapy could be ideal in case of people who suffer from generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD.

Generalized anxiety disorder is an anxiety disorder where a person worries constantly with regards to just about everything. A person with GAD could worry unnecessarily about work, health, home, children, school, condition of world affairs or of merely what could happen next. Although a few forms of anxiety, like post-traumatic stress disorder or social anxiety disorder are more restricted to particular situations that induce fear, people having generalized anxiety disorder could suffer with needless worry about all things in various degrees of severity.

The Cochrane Library recently published this study review and showed the results of 25 studies conducted with more than 13,000 subjects. In these studies it was fond by the reviewers that about 46% of the people suffering from GAD had a noticeable improvement in anxiety symptoms after they were treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy. People who did not receive treatment or where a people were given a traditional medical intervention that combined medication with a form of psychotherapy showed a overall improvement of merely 14%.

Also, the study analyzed the difference between people treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy as against people who had received another form of psychotherapy. Even here, the anxiety symptoms in people receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy showed better improvement.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a particular form of psychotherapy in which patients are taught about their thought processes and means of adopting new and healthier ways of how they view situations. It also uses modification of behavior to assist patients so that they can react in healthier ways and improve the result of situations that induce anxiety. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is different from other types of psychotherapy as the focus here is on taking action instead of merely finding the reasons for anxiety. The patient made to understand that they are responsible for their own thinking and conduct, and in due course, they recognize that modifying their thoughts and conduct can also change their emotional reactions to life which includes their generalized anxiety.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy has also proven to be very effective in treating generalized anxiety disorder and it has been mentioned as the chief therapeutic intervention as per the website of the National Institute of Mental Health. This clinical study review shows the likely direction of potential GAD treatment exploration and might result in better and more effectual therapeutic interventions.