Gili Shahnaz, Ebrahimiasl Sarieh
Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Basic Clin Neurosci. 2025;16(Spec Issue):265-272. doi: 10.32598/bcn.2023.5003.1. Epub 2025 Mar 18.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased psychological distress and impacted the diagnosis and treatment of noncommunicable diseases. This study aimed to examine the comparative effectiveness of emotionally focused therapy (EFT) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on the anxiety and quality of life (QoL) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 45 participants who met the criteria for a current episode of CAD, referred to Shahid-Rajaee Heart Hospital in Tehran City, Iran, were chosen by convenience sampling method. They were randomly assigned to a 9-week/60-minute EFT (n=15) group therapy, a 5-week/20-minute tDCS (n=15) experimental group, and one control group (n=15). They were assessed at pre-test, post-test, and 3-month follow-up. The study subjects completed the self-reported reliable and valid Persian version of questionnaires, Beck anxiety inventory (BAI), and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Then, repeated measures analysis of variance was used to measure inferential statistics.
There were significant improvements in anxiety and QoL scores in both EFT and tDCS groups over the post-test and follow-up period (P≤0.01). However, a difference was found when EFT had a greater effect on the anxiety and QoL.
These results showed that EFT and tDCS have effective interventions in reducing anxiety and improving the QoL of CAD patients, but improvements with EFT were greater than those with tDCS.
新冠疫情增加了心理困扰，并影响了非传染性疾病的诊断和治疗。本研究旨在探讨在新冠疫情期间，聚焦情绪疗法（EFT）和经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）对冠状动脉疾病（CAD）患者焦虑及生活质量（QoL）的比较疗效。
采用便利抽样法，选取了45名符合当前CAD发作标准的参与者，他们均转诊至伊朗德黑兰市的沙希德-拉贾伊心脏医院。将他们随机分为三组，分别为接受为期9周、每次60分钟的EFT（n = 15）团体治疗组、为期5周、每次20分钟的tDCS（n = 15）实验组和一个对照组（n = 15）。在治疗前、治疗后及3个月随访时对他们进行评估。研究对象完成了波斯文版可靠且有效的自填式问卷，即贝克焦虑量表（BAI）和健康相关生活质量（HRQOL）问卷。然后，使用重复测量方差分析来进行推断统计。
在治疗后和随访期间，EFT组和tDCS组的焦虑和生活质量评分均有显著改善（P≤0.01）。然而，发现EFT对焦虑和生活质量的影响更大。
这些结果表明，EFT和tDCS在减轻CAD患者焦虑和改善生活质量方面均有有效干预措施，但EFT的改善效果大于tDCS。
