the unified protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders: treatment of comorbid psychopathology accompanying a generalized anxiety disorder

Introduction: comorbidity among the generalized anxiety disorder is common and may negatively impact treatment outcomes. this study aimed to examine whether the unified protocol (up), a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy for emotional disorders (i.e., anxiety, mood, and related disorders), is efficacious in the treatment of co-occurring disorders and symptoms generalized anxiety disorder (gad). method: the research method is semi-empirical pretest-posttest and follow-up plan with a control group. in this randomized clinical trial, 24 gad patients with comorbid disorders and symptoms of depression, social anxiety and health anxiety have been treated with pharmacotherapy treatment-asusual or pharmacotherapy treatment-as-usual with 12 sessions of transdiagnostic therapy. beck depression inventory (bdi-ii), social anxiety inventory (sias) and the short form of health anxiety (shai) were used for assessing comorbidities in pre-test, post-test and 2-month follow-up. data analysis were done using the spss v20. results: significant differences were observed between the two groups. in the treatment group for pharmacotherapy treatment-as-usual and up, gad patients, showed a significant decrease in the comorbid disorders and symptoms of depression, social anxiety and health anxiety compared to the pharmacotherapy treatment-as-usual. conclusion: the findings of this study validated the effectiveness of the up in decreasing comorbid disorders and symptoms of the generalized anxiety disorder. this protocol has a high clinical value in treating emotional disorders and other related disorders.