A Randomized Clinical Trial in a Public Health Context: Inclusion of Emotional Techniques in Group Therapy for Anxiety Disorders

A randomized clinical trial was carried out with two treatment groups: one receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and the other with the inclusion of emotional techniques (CEBT), both lasting 20 sessions. The sample consisted of 237 patients, all of them with principal diagnoses of anxiety disorders, and all referred by their general practitioners. There were significant improvements in symptomatology (anxiety trait, depression, clinical symptomatology), but the only significant difference found in the intergroup comparison was for the variable "subjective life satisfaction" (p = .017), which was greater in the CEBT group. This group also displayed better adherence to the treatment program (p = .019). This reinforces the case for including group therapy treatment with emotional components in primary care settings, highlighting the importance of emphasizing self-esteem.