Introduction: A woman due to menstruation, pregnancy and poor iron intake and absorption it is prone to iron deficiency anemia and its effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of process-based treatment on anxiety in women suffering from iron deficiency anemia and generalized anxiety disorder.
Methods: It was performed by utilizing a single-case experimental design. In doing this, six female participants suffering from iron deficiency anemia were selected through purposive sampling and placed under the individual process-based therapy during nine 60-minute sessions. In the pre-treatment stage, the participants responded to Newman, Zueling, Kachin and Constantino's fourth version of the generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire and underwent clinical interviews. They also completed the Beck's depression inventory in the baseline stages and third, sixth and ninth sessions of the intervention and finally at the 3-month follow up stages. The data were analyzed by the method of visual analysis, stable change index and recovery percentage formula, and the effectiveness of the treatment was evaluated using the Ingram criteria.
Results: The results showed that the percentage of overall recovery in depression for the first to sixth participants in the intervention stage was 49/26، 50/54، 59/27, 76/20، 54/41 و 57/83 and in the follow-up stages was 70/10، 64/70، 75/93، 78/61، 77/57 و 84/93; respectively. Also, the percentage of overall recovery in the intervention and follow-up stages was 57/90 and 75/30; respectively indicating to a success in therapy.
Conclusions: Process-based therapy reduces depression of the research participants and it is suggested to be used as a method of treatment and complementary to medical treatment to remedy comorbid mental disorders and improve the general performance of people with anemia.