Cognitive-behavioral intervention in a case of anxiety

Abstract

Anxiety is defined as a psychologicalresponse to situations perceived orinterpreted as threatening or dan- gerous, which can be harmful if itoccurs frequently and exacerbated,having negative implications in the person’s life. The cognitive-behavioralmodel has proven to be effective forthe treatment of this phenomenon.The aim of this article is to describea psychological intervention underthe cognitive behavioral model in acase of anxiety, using techniques suchas Psychoeducation, Bernstein and Borkovec’s Progressive Muscular Re-laxation and Bain’s thought stopping. An initial assessment was performedbased on a behavioral interview andrecords on the intensity of anxiety epi- sodes through the Analogous Numerical Scale (ANS ). The psychologicalintervention consisted of 10 sessionslasting approximately one hour, in which the user was trained with theaforementioned techniques. Subsquently, the case was followed upand monitored. The results showed adecrease in the occurrence (from eightepisodes to only one per day) andintensity of the anxiety episodes (in aninitial ANS = 9 and final ANS = 3) as wellas the incorporation of the patient toher daily activities.