Association between cognitive coping therapy coupled with paroxetine and clinical outcomes in patients with generalized anxiety disorder: A retrospective study.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the clinical outcomes of patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) receiving cognitive coping therapy (CCT) combined with paroxetine with those receiving paroxetine alone, with a particular focus on anxiety status and headache severity. METHODS: Clinical data of 100 patients with GAD were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were categorized based on treatment regimens as follows: 43 in the control group (paroxetine alone) and 57 in the study group (CCT and paroxetine). Clinical efficacy, anxiety status, headache severity, sleep quality, coping mechanism, plasma neurotransmitter levels, and quality of life were compared between the groups. RESULTS: The study group (96.49%) exhibited higher overall effectiveness than the control group (79.07%) (p < 0.05). After four weeks of treatment, the Hamilton Anxiety Scale, Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Visual Analog Score, Headache Impact Test-6, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores, avoidance and submission scores, plasma dopamine, and plasma norepinephrine concentrations were significantly reduced in both groups and were much lower in the study group, while plasma 5-hydroxytryptamine in the study group was higher than that before treatment and higher than that in the control group after post-treatment (p < 0.05). The Confrontation and Generic Quality of Life Inventory-74 scores demonstrated notable increases in both groups after treatment and were significantly higher in the study group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In this retrospective study, compared with paroxetine alone, cognitive CCT combined with paroxetine was associated with greater improvements in anxiety symptoms, headache severity, sleep quality, coping styles, plasma neurotransmitter levels, and quality of life among patients with GAD.