Association of Thought control strategies and beliefs about worry with stress symptoms among war veterans

Background & Purpose: Metacognitive therapy is one of approaches of third wave cognitive behavioral therapy that has proved its effectiveness in psychiatric disorders. If metacognitive model is true in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), it can be used in treatment of war veterans with this disorder.The present study aimed to assess the contribution of metacognitive beliefs and coping strategies characterized by worry to the persistence of stress symptoms in a war veteran population that experience much stress. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study and 144 veterans that experiencing a lot of stress after returning from the war evaluated by Metacognitive, Thought Control and Impact of Event-Revised scales. The data from the study was analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, multiple regression analysis and path analysis. Results: In line with the predictions made by the Well metacognitive model (2000), worry thought control strategy, Positive and negative beliefs about worry is highly correlated with Stress Symptoms. Mediational path analyses provided support for the mediational predictions. The association between positive metacognitive beliefs is mediated by worry, whilst there is a direct relationship between negative metacognitions and stress symptoms. Conclusion: results of this study show metacognitive model is applicable in war veteran population that experience much stress and can be used of treatment consideration of this model in reduction of stress symptoms