Abstract
The aim of this present study is to examine the efficacy of attribution retraining group therapy (ARGT) and to compare the responses of outpatients with major depression disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We carried out a prospective uncontrolled intervention study with a 8-weeks of ARGT on sixty three outpatients with MDD, GAD or OCD. Hamilton rating scale for depression, Hamilton rating scale for anxiety, Yale-Brown obsessive-compulsive scale, attribution style questionnaire, self-esteem scale, index of well-being, and social disability screening schedule were administered before and after treatment. Significant improvement in symptoms and psychological and social functions from pre-to posttreatment occurred for all participants. The changes favored MDD patients. Our study suggested that ARGT may improve the symptoms and psychological-social functions of MDD, GAD, and OCD patients. MDD patients showed the best response.
Highlights
Attribution retraining (AR) is one of the therapeutic approaches within the larger group of cognitive behavior therapy
The three groups were well-matched in age, gender, marital status, family environment, onset, course of disease and family history
All the three groups of patients improved significantly in depression and anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms were reduced significantly in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients after 8 weeks of attribution retraining group therapy (ARGT). This suggests that ARGT exerts a positive effect on major depression disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and OCD patients, which agrees with the findings from previous studies[3,20,21]
Summary
Attribution retraining (AR) is one of the therapeutic approaches within the larger group of cognitive behavior therapy. It is a therapy that treats clients’ maladjusted emotions and behaviors by changing their explanations for problems and symptoms[1,2]. People attribute behaviors and events to various reasons. Attributional style refers to a person’s characteristic ways of explaining the causes of events[5], which is the basic concept of AR[4,6]. There are three facets of how people can explain a situation: stable-unstable; global-local; and internal-external[7,8]. In AR interventions, therapists usually target the patient’s automatic thoughts, which are rooted in unhealthy attributions, and challenge these pessimistic attributions by means of offering alternative explanations premised upon healthy attributions[2]
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