A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS AND HOPELESSNESS AMONG DEPRESSIVE AND ANXIETY DISORDER
ABSTRACT
Depression and anxiety are important contributors of the global burden of disease and important mental health condition in Nepal being very highly prevalent, co-morbid and associated with psychosocial health. The present study was undertaken to examine the relationship between Automatic Thoughts and Hopelessness among the diagnosed patients of Depressive and Anxiety Disorder visiting psychiatry OPD in Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. The study followed descriptive design. 42 participants with Depressive Disorder and 50 with Anxiety Disorder were recruited purposively with the mean age of 20.92 ±8.26 years from inpatient and outpatient services of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. Measures used were Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire-Revised (ATQ-R), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The obtained data were computed and analyzed using SPSS 18. The result shows that Automatic negative thoughts (113.24 ± 24.68, 102.54 ± 24.70) and hopelessness (10.36 ± 1.09, 6.24 ± 1.02) are significantly higher in depressive disorder in comparison to anxiety disorder. There is significant correlation of automatic negative thoughts with depressive (r =+ 0.547) and anxiety (r = + 0.402) symptoms among participants of the both disorder. Similarly, hopelessness also has significant correlation with depressive(r =+ 0.640) and anxiety (r =+ 0.353) symptoms. In conclusion, both disorders, i.e. depressive and anxiety disorder have significantly high level of automatic negative thoughts and hopelessness which suggests that similar kind of psychotherapeutic intervention will be beneficial for the patients for both disorders.
Keywords: Anxiety Disorder, Automatic Negative Thoughts, Depressive Disorder, and Hopelessness.
Author's Name: Pratibha Maharjan