Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Clinical Psychology, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
Trends Psychiatry Psychother. 2021 Jan-Mar;43(1):57-64. doi: 10.47626/2237-6089-2020-0046.
Many adolescents suffer from depressive and anxiety disorders simultaneously and current treatment methods do not put enough emphasis on comorbidity of these disorders. The unified protocol for treating emotional disorders in adolescents is a transdiagnostic therapy which targets mutual fundamental factors. Therefore, the current study aims to compare the effectiveness of the unified protocol alone with the unified protocol combined with mindfulness as an additional treatment in adolescents suffering from emotional disorders.
A quasi-experimental study was conducted with adolescents. The participants had been diagnosed with emotional disorders and were divided into a control group (15 participants) and an experimental group (16 participants). Both groups were offered 14 sessions of therapy. They were assessed at pre-test, post-test, and two-month follow-up. Scales used in the study included the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and the Youth Anxiety Measure for DSM-5 (YAM-5).
The results showed that both of the treatment methods effectively reduced adolescents' emotional problems, but improvements were more significant in the group administered the additional mindfulness program. Among the variables assessed, non-phobic anxiety disorders and depression improved more than specific phobia and behavioral problems. Between-subjects (Group) partial etas for non-phobic anxiety, depression, specific phobia, and behavioral problems were 0.67, 0.50, 0.23, and 0.16, respectively.
According to the findings of this study, additional treatment methods such as mindfulness could increase the effectiveness of the unified transdiagnostic protocol for adolescents (UP-A). The therapeutic implications are discussed.
许多青少年同时患有抑郁和焦虑障碍，而当前的治疗方法并没有足够重视这些障碍的共病现象。青少年情绪障碍统一治疗方案是一种针对共同基本因素的跨诊断治疗。因此，本研究旨在比较统一方案单独治疗与统一方案联合正念治疗作为附加治疗对患有情绪障碍的青少年的疗效。
本研究采用准实验设计，纳入青少年患者。参与者被诊断为情绪障碍，并分为对照组（15 名参与者）和实验组（16 名参与者）。两组均接受 14 次治疗。在治疗前、治疗后和两个月随访时进行评估。研究中使用的量表包括儿童行为检查表（CBCL）、儿童抑郁量表（CDI）和青少年焦虑量表 5 项（YAM-5）。
结果表明，两种治疗方法均能有效减轻青少年的情绪问题，但在接受附加正念训练的组中，改善更为显著。在评估的变量中，非恐惧症焦虑障碍和抑郁障碍的改善程度高于特定恐惧症和行为问题。非恐惧症焦虑、抑郁、特定恐惧症和行为问题的被试间（组）偏 eta 分别为 0.67、0.50、0.23 和 0.16。
根据本研究的结果，附加的治疗方法，如正念，可以提高统一跨诊断治疗方案（UP-A）对青少年的疗效。讨论了治疗意义。
