Journal of Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences

Background & aim: Anxiety and depression disorders have high rates of comorbidity. By emphasizing the central processes of psychopathology and targeting these common processes,   unified transdiagnostic treatment can be very effective in the treatment of comorbidity. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of Unified Transdiagnostic Treatment on Anxiety Disorders and Comorbid Depression.

Methods: This is a single-case experimental study with multiple baseline design and different subjects that was conducted during 12 sessions on 3 patients with 6 weeks follow-up. Data were analyzed using visual inspection, the improvement percentage and effect size methods. Instruments used in this research included the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I disorders, beck anxiety inventory and 2nd edition of beck depression inventory.

Results: The findings showed that the unified transdiagnostic treatment reduced the severity of anxiety and depression symptoms in the both post-treatment and follow-up stages so that percent of improvement for the first, second and third participants in the symptoms of anxiety was 61.64%, 51.42% and 52% and in the symptoms of depression was 47.36%, 51.51% and 60%, respectively.

Conclusion: The present study targets the common emotional factors rather than specific symptoms of disorder through integrated protocol and provides further evidence for the dimensional approach of psychopathology. In this research, significant changes occurred in the symptoms of the three patients and the  medical achievements were maintained during the follow-up.