Department

Counseling and Human Services

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Date of Award

11-2020

Format

.pdf

Degree Level

Ph.D.

URI

https://search.proquest.com/pqdtlocal1005755/docview/2491093148/fulltextPDF/D6AA08F093904425PQ/1?accountid=7076

Proquest Document ID

2491093148

Identifier

ETD2020Jefferson

School/University

St. Mary's University

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Melanie Harper

Abstract

The caregiver population has recently been recognized in society as a population highly susceptible to problems related to increased anxiety, burden, and abnormal psychological well-being. This experimental pretest post-test 2-group double-blind study was designed to measure the efficacy of cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) on anxiety and depressive symptoms of caregivers. Changes in anxiety and depressive symptoms were identified using pre- and posttest measures of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory. Caregivers were assigned a pre-coded CES device. Neither the researcher nor the caregiver knew whether a device was active or sham until the completion of the entire study. This experimental design used a repeated measure t-test for quantitative statistics. Following an analysis of the data, the researcher’s hypotheses that CES would help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression more significantly than a placebo were not supported. Both the treatment and control groups experienced decreased anxiety and depressive symptoms, but the treatment group’s decrease was not significantly greater than the control group’s decrease.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Download

Share

COinS