Background and objectives: Defined by chronic pain, rheumatic diseases are often co-occurring with anxiety and depression. Among the available psychological interventions, cognitive-behavioral therapies have an already-proven efficiency in these cases. However, the need to adjust their structure became ubiquitous during the post-pandemic period. Hence, the objective of this study was to investigate the impact of a single-session, process-based cognitive-behavioral intervention for patients with rheumatic conditions within an in-patient setting.
Materials and methods: A total of 31 participants (mean age 58.9 years) completed the single-session intervention. Assessments were conducted prior to the intervention, post-intervention and after one month.
Results: Pearson's correlations, paired samples T tests and a covariance analysis based on the Linear Mixed Model were performed for exploring the relations between baseline variables and evaluating the impact of the SSI intervention. Immediately after the intervention, a significant reduction in cognitive fusion (p = 0.001, d = 1.78), experiential avoidance (p = 0.001, d = 1.4) and dysfunctional behavioral processes was observed. At the one-month evaluation, participants reported decreased pain (p = 0.001, d = 1.11), anxiety (p = 0.004, d = 0.55) and depression (p = 0.001, d = 0.72).
Conclusions: The single-session, process-based approach represents a promising intervention in healthcare contexts, as an integrative part of a multimodal rehabilitation treatment in patients with rheumatic conditions.
Keywords: anxiety; chronic pain; depression; process-based cognitive-behavioral therapy; psychological intervention; psychosomatic medicine; rheumatic conditions; single-session intervention.