Investigating the effects and efficacy of self-compassion intervention on generalized anxiety disorders

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the least successfully treated anxiety disorder. This clinical trial investigated the effects and efficacy of a novel self-compassion intervention in GAD. A total of 75 GAD patients were assigned to a self-compassion intervention group (n = 25), a mindfulness intervention group (n = 25), or a treat-as-usual group (n = 25). Patients in the two active groups received eight intervention sessions in two weeks in addition to usual treatment i.e., pharmacotherapy. Primary outcomes were anxiety and worry, assessed at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and three-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes included depression, sleep, as well as self-compassion and mindfulness. Both the self-compassion and mindfulness intervention induced a more rapid decrease in anxiety and depression than pharmacological treatment alone with excellent response and remission rate. Self-compassion intervention also induced a more rapid improvement in sleep quality compared to mindfulness intervention and pharmacological treatment alone. We also presented a mechanism for the self-compassion intervention in which decreased anxiety led to improvement in sleep quality. There was also a higher pleasure, acceptance, and willingness to re-attend in the self-compassion compared to the mindfulness intervention. This study was single blinded and nonrandomized which may bring risks of bias. Overall, we provided novel evidence that self-compassion intervention is an alternative psychotherapy for GAD with excellent response and acceptability.