Comparison of the Effectiveness of Unified Transdiagnostic Therapy (UP-C) with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on Depression Anxiety Symptoms in Child Workers:''Child Labour"

Background: The presented study investigated the efficacy and rationale of the unified protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders (UP-C) for providing a transdiagnostic based therapeutic strategy as a comparison with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Methods: All subjects (female children) with a principal anxiety disorder and depression were included in the study (15 patients), implicating 3-month follow-up period. Furthermore, all subjects were randomly assigned to receive UP-C, and CBT, following a wait-list control. Female children age ranged from 8 years to 11 years. In the current study, child workers ages 8 years-11 years and post-treatment and three months' follow-up data were then considered for statistical analysis. Results: Findings revealed that effect of kind of group on depression anxiety was remarkably significant, depression and anxiety were changed significantly in different stages of pre-treatment, post-treatment and follow-up. Moreover, a significant difference was found between the pre-treatment and the post-treatment in the CBT and UP-C group. Additionally, the result presented herein, indicated the decreasing trend of depression anxiety in the two intervention groups (CBT and UP-C). The decrease in both depression anxieties in the UP-C group were found to be greater when comparing with the CBT group. But, these trends were significantly greater in UP-C group. Conclusion: UP-C was effective in depression anxiety regulation as compared with CBT group and resulted in a significant decline in depression anxiety symptoms. UP-C showed higher therapeutic efficacy on indices of depression anxiety as compared to CBT. Although UP-C exhibited promising results, however further greater RCTs are required to evaluate UP-C effectiveness in different conditions and other co-occurring psychological conditions.