Strategies for Reducing Anxiety and Depression in Chronic Disease Patients

Since chronic diseases have a negative impact on both the patient and their community, and given that the number of people suffering from these diseases is continuously increasing, the current research aims to develop a cognitive therapeutic program to help kidney failure patients who visit Ramadi Teaching Hospital reduce their anxiety and depression. This was done by randomly applying two scales to a number of patients representing the research population, which consisted of 50 kidney failure patients.The researcher used an experimental research method with pre and post-tests. From the 30 patients receiving treatment who suffered from anxiety, 10 individuals were randomly selected who agreed to participate in the training program. The researcher developed a cognitive therapeutic program after applying anxiety and depression scales, consisting of 12 sessions. After obtaining written consent from the research sample, therapy sessions were scheduled in coordination with the treating physician on the same day as their doctor's appointments, and after completing their specialist consultation, the researcher would gather the research sample and begin the sessions.At the end of the period, which extended for three months with one session per week (except for the final session at the program's end), both scales were applied in the last session. The researcher found that the experimental group's scores had decreased significantly compared to their scores in the first application at the beginning of the program, indicating that theprogram had an effect on the research sample as their scores on both anxiety and depression scales decreased.