Comparing the Effectiveness of Unified Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders and Emotion Efficacy Therapy on Reducing the Symptoms of Anxiety Among Adults With Stuttering

Zarei Faskhodi, Bentolhoda; Karbalaee Mohammad Meygoni, Ahmad; Rezabakhsh, Hossein; Ghelichi, Leila

Volume 12 - Articles-1401 MEJDS (2022) 12: 12 | Back to browse issues page

Mendeley

Zotero

RefWorks

Zarei Faskhodi B, Karbalaee Mohammad Meygoni A, Rezabakhsh H, Ghelichi L. Comparing the Effectiveness of Unified Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders and Emotion Efficacy Therapy on Reducing the Symptoms of Anxiety Among Adults With Stuttering. MEJDS 2022; 12 :12-12
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-2026-en.html

Comparing the Effectiveness of Unified Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders and Emotion Efficacy Therapy on Reducing the Symptoms of Anxiety Among Adults With Stuttering

Bentolhoda Zarei Faskhodi¹

, Ahmad Karbalaee Mohammad Meygoni ^*²

, Hossein Rezabakhsh³

, Leila Ghelichi⁴

1- PhD Student, Department of Psychology, Karaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
2- Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Karaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
3- Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
4- Assistant Professor, Department of Speech &Language Pathology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: (1359 Views)

Background & Objectives: Stuttering adults are more anxious than ordinary people in social situations. Therefore, researchers need to use appropriate treatment methods to reduce the anxiety of these clients. One of the treatment methods that seems to have a significant effect in reducing the symptoms of anxiety is tunified transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders. This method is based on cognitive–behavioral theories and is obtained by combining and consolidating of the common principles of support–based psychotherapies. Another transdiagnostic treatment that seems effective in reducing anxiety symptoms is the emotion efficacy therapy (EET), which is an integrative treatment. It draws its components from acceptance and commitment therapy and dialectical behavior therapy to create a sort of exposure–based protocol. The main aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of unified transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders and emotion efficacy therapy in reducing the symptoms of anxiety among adults with stuttering.
Methods: The research method was quasi–experimental with a pretest–posttest and a follow–up design with a control group. The statistical population included all stuttering adults who went to speech therapy clinics in Tehran City, Iran and the Iranian Stuttering Association for receiving speech therapy during the 2018–2019 years. Of whom, 36 stuttering adults were selected by available sampling and based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Then they were randomly assigned to the group of unified transdiagnostic treatment, the group of emotion efficacy therapy, and control group. The inclusion criteria were as follows: adults with developmental stuttering over 18 years old, presence of anxiety disorder based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM–5) and diagnostic interview, and having at least third–grade guidance school literacy. The exclusion criteria were as follows: having mental retardation and chronic physical diseases, or receiving psychotherapy, medication, or speech therapy during the treatment period. For the treatment groups, each intervention was performed based on two–hour sessions and no intervention was performed for the control group. This group was placed on the waiting list for treatment upon request. The tools used in the present study included the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck et al., 1988) which was used in three stages: pretest, posttest, and follow–up for three groups. To analyze the data, the repeated measures analysis of variance, Bonferroni post hoc test, 1–way analysis of variance, and the Chi–square test were used using SPSS software. P values less than 0.050 were considered significant.
Results: Results showed that the effect of the within–subjects factor, i.e., time (p<0.001), the between–subjects factor, i.e., the effectiveness of unified transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders and emotion efficacy therapy (p=0.001) as well as the interaction of these two factors (p=0.024) were significant on the anxiety variable. The difference between the average scores of the subjects of the two groups of emotion efficacy therapy and the unified transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders with the control group was significant in the anxiety variable (p=0.001, p=0.023, respectively). However, the difference in the average scores of the subjects of the two treatment groups in the anxiety variable was not significant (p=0.590). Also, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the anxiety variable in the pretest and the posttest (p<0.001) and between the pretest and the follow–up (p=0.001) scores. However, the average anxiety scores in the posttest did not have a significant difference from the follow–up scores, which showed the persistence of the effectiveness of the two treatment methods in the follow–up phase (p=0.650).
Conclusion: In general, due to the significant effect of both treatment methods, i.e., the unified transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders and emotion efficacy therapy, stuttering therapists can use these two methods to reduce the anxiety of stuttering adults.

Keywords: Anxiety, Stuttering, Emotion efficacy therapy, Unified transdiagnostic treatment

Full-Text [PDF 556 kb] (291 Downloads)

Type of Study: Original Research Article | Subject: Psychology

References

1. Guitar B. Stuttering: an integrated approach to its nature and treatment. 4th edition. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health; 2014.

2. Boyle MP. Personal perceptions and perceived public opinion about stuttering in the United States: implications for anti-stigma campaigns. Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2017;26(3):921–38. [DOI]

3. Boyle MP, Fearon AN. Self-stigma and its associations with stress, physical health, and health care satisfaction in adults who stutter. Journal of Fluency Disorders. 2018;56:112–21. [DOI]

4. St. Louis KO, Irani F, Gabel RM, Hughes S, Langevin M, Rodriguez M, et al. Evidence-based guidelines for being supportive of people who stutter in North America. Journal of Fluency Disorders. 2017;53:1–13. [DOI]

5. Sønsterud H, Feragen KB, Kirmess M, Halvorsen MS, Ward D. What do people search for in stuttering therapy: personal goal-setting as a gold standard? Journal of Communication Disorders. 2020;85:105944. [DOI]

6. Maguire GA, Nguyen DL, Simonson KC, Kurz TL. The pharmacologic treatment of stuttering and its neuropharmacologic basis. Front Neurosci. 2020;14:158. [DOI]

7. Gavric D, Moscovitch DA, Rowa K, McCabe RE. Post-event processing in social anxiety disorder: examining the mediating roles of positive metacognitive beliefs and perceptions of performance. Behavior Research Therapy. 2017;91:1–12. [DOI]

8. Menzies R, O’Brian S, Packman A, Jones M, Helgadóttir FD, Onslow M. Supplementing stuttering treatment with online cognitive behavior therapy: an experimental trial. Journal of Communication Disorders. 2019;80:81–91. [DOI]

9. Craig A, Tran Y. Trait and social anxiety in adults with chronic stuttering: conclusions following meta-analysis. Journal of Fluency Disorders. 2014;40:35–43. [DOI]

10. Iverach L, Rapee RM. Social anxiety disorder and stuttering: current status and future directions. Journal of Fluency Disorders. 2014;40:69–82. [DOI]

11. Amster BJ, Klein ER. More than fluency: the social, emotional, and cognitive dimensions of stuttering. First edition. San Diego: Plural Publishing; 2018.

12. Walden TA, Frankel CB, Buhr AP, Johnson KN, Conture EG, Karrass JM. Dual diathesis-stressor model of emotional and linguistic contributions to developmental stuttering. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2012;40(4):633–44. [DOI]

13. Torres-Prioris MJ, López-Barroso D, Paredes-Pacheco J, Roé-Vellvé N, Dawid-Milner MS, Berthier ML. Language as a threat: multimodal evaluation and interventions for overwhelming linguistic anxiety in severe Aphasia. Front Psychol. 2019;10:678. [DOI]

14. Treanor M, Erisman SM, Salters-Pedneault K, Roemer L, Orsillo SM. Acceptance-based behavioral therapy for GAD: effects on outcomes from three theoretical models. Depress Anxiety. 2011;28(2):127–36. [DOI]

15. Kocovski NL, Fleming JE, Hawley LL, Ho M-HR, Antony MM. Mindfulness and acceptance-based group therapy and traditional cognitive behavioral group therapy for social anxiety disorder: mechanisms of change. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 2015;70:11–22. [DOI]

16. Barlow DH, Farchione TJ, Fairholme CP, Ellard KK. Unified protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders: therapist guide. USA: Oxford University Press; 2011.

17. Bullis JR, Sauer-Zavala S, Bentley KH, Thompson-Hollands J, Carl JR, Barlow DH. The unified protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders: preliminary exploration of effectiveness for group delivery. Behav Modif. 2015;39(2):295–321. [DOI]

18. McKay M, West A. Emotion Efficacy therapy: a brief, exposure-based treatment for emotion regulation integrating ACT & DBT. Oakland: New Harbinger Publication; 2016.

19. Beilby JM, Byrnes ML, Yaruss JS. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for adults who stutter: Psychosocial adjustment and speech fluency. J Fluency Disord. 2012;37(4):289–99. [DOI]

20. Morgan BL, VanVoorhis CRW. Understanding power and rules of thumb for determining sample sizes. Tutor Quant Methods Psychol. 2007;3(2):43–50. [DOI]

21. Beck AT, Epstein N, Brown G, Steer RA. An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1988;56(6):893–7. [DOI]

22. Rafiei M, Seifi A. An investigation into the reliability and validity of Beck Anxiety Inventory among the university students. Thought & Behavior in Clinical Psychology. 2013;7(27):37–46. [Persian]