In 2017, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated in their flagship study "The Global Burden of Disease" that there are about 284 million people across the globe who have anxiety. Since cases of mental health disorders are significantly under-reported, the values were most likely an underestimation.
As more people become plagued by mental health disorders, the improvement in the understanding of current medical practices concerning these mental health issues is a must.
A team of researchers from the University of Houston, University of Albany, and Boston University have found a crucial discovery that could improve the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy for individuals with anxiety disorders.
A recent clinical trial involving 223 individuals in cognitive behavior therapy for one of four anxiety disorders—social anxiety, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive–compulsive disorder—has determined that hope is a crucial factor that predicts resilience and recovery from anxiety disorders in cognitive behavior therapy.
The team hypothesized that for patients with anxiety disorders, cognitive behavior treatment can result in moderate to substantial increases in hope and that these changes in hope would not only predict anxiety but would also temporarily precede changes in anxiety.
Hope is commonly defined in psychotherapy as the capacity to identify strategies to pursue goals and having the agency to pursue the identified strategies effectively. In the present study, the State Hope Scale was used to evaluate the changes in hope during experiments. The participants were required to fill out that State Hope Scale and were evaluated in terms of clinician-rated anxiety and self-reported anxiety.
Changes in hope recorded in the participants' responses to the State Hope Scale predicted the changes in the evaluation in terms of clinician-rated anxiety and self-reported anxiety. Moreover, the changes in hope were significantly bigger in cognitive behavior therapy than those who were on the waitlist.
Hope is particularly relevant in cognitive behavior therapy, for the sessions are often problem focused and involve goals and strategies to cope with anxiety. This practice of setting realistic and attainable goals in cognitive behavior therapy maximizes the incitement of hope in individuals with anxiety disorders.
Additionally, increased levels of hope are known to promote a healthier mind and lower levels of anxiety. Individuals who have high levels of hope tend to perceive challenges as less stressful, bounce back quicker when faced with obstacles, and are more likely to engage in active coping. Inversely, individuals with low levels of hope engage in negative adaptive coping styles like denial and distancing. This discovered promotion of hope in cognitive–behavioral theory can, therefore, promote recovery during cognitive behavior therapy.
However, the presented study has some limitations. For example, the study cannot predict the amount of change in the hope that may be necessary to achieve sub-clinical levels of different anxiety disorders or complete remission of symptoms.
