[Effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioural program to reduce anxiety in medically ill patients]

The aim of this work is to evaluate four programs to reduce anxiety in medically ill patients: psicoeducative, cognitive, behavioural or control. One hundred and seventy seven patients from the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán were assigned randomly to one of this programs and were evaluated before and after them with the Anxiety Hamilton Scale and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Program effectiveness was evaluated with descriptive and a Pre-post difference mean analysis. Results show that the program that obtained the best results in reducing anxiety levels was the Psicoeducative Program, reducing significantly the anxiety levels evaluated with both measures. This indicates that in patients that assist to a general hospital, the combination of different psychological techniques such as providing information to the patient, relaxation training and other cognitive strategies are effective in reducing tension, worries, nervousness and levels of anxiety related with their illness.