中華心理衛生協會

This study intended to evaluate the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral-based anxiety management training group (AMTG) in alleviating anxiety symptoms. Nineteen patients received psychiatric diagnosis of anxiety disorder were referred by psychiatrists. They were assigned into three groups and received the same AMTG protocol. The AMTG consisted of 12 therapy sessions over three months. The Zung's Anxiety Scale was administered before each of the 12 group therapy sessions in order to measure the severity of anxiety. In addition, categories of contributing effects were formed from analyses of group sessions and homework in which participants reported thoughts and feelings about anxiety events during each week.Results showed a significant decrease of mean anxiety scores from pre-to post-treatment on the Zung's Anxiety Scale. The analysis of group sessions and homework revealed three categories of effectiveness. The first category-the change of negative concepts about anxiety-included de-threatening and de-ambiguity about overanxious responses. The second category, the benefits from group processes, included perceived social support, opportunities for ventilating pent-up negative emotions, vicarious learning, and adaptive performance. The last category-successful experiences to cope with anxiety-included the use of muscle relaxation and controlled breathing to control physical symptoms, and the adoption of thought distraction and thought replacement to control automatic negative thoughts. In conclusion, AMTG effectively decreased the perceived level of anxiety-provoking stressors as well as increased self-efficacy to cope with stressors. The findings and limitations of the study are discussed.