Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective: To explore the effect of group cognitive behavioral therapy on improving the depressive and anxiety status of the patients with chronic disease (hypertension and diabetes). Methods: Patients with chronic disease and depressive and anxiety status were included. They were randomly divided into 2 groups after enrolled according to the community. 8-weks general healthy education were offered to the participants both in the control and intervention group. Besides, an additional cognitive behavioral therapy were offered for the participants in the intervention group. The Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-9), General Anxiety Scale (GAD-7), and the Version 2 of The SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36v2) questionnaires were used to measure the degree of depression and anxiety for each participants before and after intervention. Results: The results of two-way repeated measures of ANOVA showed there existed a significant interactive effect (time*group) for depressive and anxiety status. The total scores of The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were significantly decreased after 8-weeks intervention in the intervention group.. Conclusion: Group cognitive-behavioral therapy can help to improve the depressive and anxiety status of patients with chronic diseases.However, it is still needed to design the specific intervention for the patients with different chronic diseases for further design.

group cognitive behavioral therapy; chronic patients; depression; anxiety; life quality