Comparing metacognitive beliefs and worry in patients with anxiety, depression and non-patients

The present study aimed to compare the metacognitive beliefs and worry in depressed, anxious patients and nonpatients. This descriptive-correlational study was conducted in 2012. A total of 180 individuals including 60 depressed patients (30 males, 30 females), 60 anxious patients (30 males, 30 females) referred to psychological and counseling centers and 60 non-patient university students (30 males, 30 females) participated in the study. After applying convenience sampling and conducting unstructured interview by a psychologist, the subjects completed the Zung’s Anxiety Scale, Beck’s Depression Inventory, Penn State Worry Questionnaire, and the Wells’ Metacognition Questionnaire. The results of the statistical analysis, ANOVA, LSD post hoc test, and Pearson correlation indicated that compared to depressed patients and non-patient subjects, anxious patients had higher levels of metacognitive beliefs and worry and this difference was significant (F=21/53, p<0/001). Moreover, there was a positive significant correlation between metacognitive beliefs and worry in anxious patients and healthy subjects (p<0/001). However, this correlation was not significant among depressed patients. It seems that metacognitive beliefs are closely related to worry specially in anxious patients.
Author(s): Mahdi Sheikh, Seyed Hassan Saadat, Hassan Sarabandi, Seyed Mosa Tabatabaee and Azam Karimian

Abstract | PDF

Share This Article