effectiveness of paradox therapy on covid-19 anxiety in adult population in jahrom

Background: since covid-19 is a new disease with devastating effects worldwide, its emergence and spread aroused confusion, anxiety, and fear among the public. objectives: the present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of paradox therapy on the covid-19 anxiety in adult population in jahrom, iran. methods: this research was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design and a two-month follow-up. the research population encompassed all individuals willing to participate in the present study who were residing in jahrom during 2020-2021. according to the covid-19 anxiety scale, 30 participants with high levels of covid-19 anxiety were selected using the convenience samplingmethodandwere randomly assigned to experimental (n=15)andcontrol (n=15) groups. the experimental group received eight sessions of paradox therapy; however, the control group remained on the waiting list. the research tools included structured clinical interviews and the covid-19 anxiety scale. finally, the collected data were analyzed using friedman’s statistical method. results: the results showed that paradox therapy was effective in decreasing covid-19 anxiety (p = 0.001) and its psychological (p = 0.001) and physical (p = 0.002) symptoms, and the scores of the covid-19-induced psychological and physical symptoms in the posttest phase were significantly lower in the intervention group than the control group (p < 0.001). the decrease was noticed in the follow-up phase as well. conclusions: according to the results, paradox therapy can effectively reduce anxiety and its psychological and physical symptoms due to covid-19.