Stress inoculation therapy with anxiety and stress disorders of acute psychiatric inpatients

Twenty-six consecutive inpatient psychiatric admissions with severe stress and anxiety disorders were assigned to three treatment groups: stress inoculation therapy; a combination of stress inoculation and medication therapy; and medication therapy. The dependent measures indicate that stress inoculation therapy was superior to chemotherapy from pre- to post-testing and from baseline to posttesting in reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and overall subjective distress. In a 3-year follow-up, subjects in the stress inoculation therapy group tended to require fewer readmissions for psychiatric problems than the other treatment groups. It is proposed that stress inoculation therapy is effective in reducing symptoms of severe anxiety and stress reactions of acute psychiatric inpatients and that medication sometimes may have an inhibitive effect upon possible gains through psychotherapy.