Comparison of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group intervention for coronary heart disease and cognitive therapy in groups on type D personality and psychological distress on coronary heart patients- a randomized clinical trial

In contemporary medicine, researchers in the behavioral sciences emphasize the relationship between psychosocial characteristics, personality traits and behavioral patterns in patients with Coronary Heart Diseases (CHD). The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Intervention for Coronary Heart Disease (CBGI-CHD) and Cognitive Therapy in Groups (CTG) of Type D Personality (TDP) and stress, anxiety, and depression. The present study was a semi-experimental study in which the pretest-posttest with the control group was utilized. Patients (51) randomly allocated to three equal groups. Of these, 17 (13 men and 4 women) in the first experimental group (CTG), 17 (10 men and 7 women) in the second experimental group (CBGI-CHD) and 17 (12 men and 5 women) were randomly assigned to the control group. The first and second experimental groups, along with regular medical care, received CTG and CBGI-CHD for 12 weekly sessions of 2 h and 12 weekly sessions of 2.5 h, respectively (from April up to the end of June 2016) in private clinics of cardiologists of Mashhad. The control group received only regular medical care in this period. Patients in all groups responded to the DS14, DASS21 and BDI-II scales before intervention (pretest) and immediately after the intervention (posttest). It included diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis of CHD in the patient’s medical records by a cardiologist. According to the results, there was a significant difference between the two experimental groups compared to the control group and the effectiveness of CBGI-CHD and CTG interventions on the variables. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference in TDP and depression variables between CTG and GBGI-CHD treatments ( P > 0.05). But there was a significant difference in anxiety and stress between CTG and CBGI-CHD Treatments ( P ≤ 0.05). CTG is more effective in reducing anxiety and stress than GBGI-CHD. Finally, it’s possible to conclude that both CTG and GBGI-CHD are useful interventions in patients with CHD. However, the effect of CTG was more important than GBGI-CHD in anxiety and stress variables.