Comparison of the effects of emotionally focused therapy and transcranial direct current stimulation on anxiety and quality of life of patients with coronary artery disease during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has increased psychological distress and impacted 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 anxiety and quality of life in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A total of forty-five participants who met criteria for a current episode of CAD chosen by convenience sampling method from Tehran city were randomly assigned to a 9-week/60-min EFT (n = 15) group therapy, 5-week/20-min tDCS (n = 15) experimental group and one control group (n = 15). They were assessed at pre-treatment, post-group, and 3-month follow-up. The study subjects completed the self-reported questionnaires, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL). Results Repeated measures analysis of variance, ANOVA, was used to measure inferential statistics. There were significant improvements in Anxiety and Quality of Life scores in both EFT and tDCS groups over the post and follow-up period (P > 0.05). However, difference was found when EFT had a greater effect on Anxiety and Quality of Life. Conclusions These results showed EFT and tDCS have effective interventions in reducing anxiety and improving the quality of life of CAD patients, but improvements with EFT were greater than those with tDCS.