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©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jan 19, 2026; 16(1): 111581
Published online Jan 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i1.111581
Published online Jan 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i1.111581
Cognitive behavioral therapy enhances psychological and physiological outcomes in high-altitude respiratory patients
De-Feng Meng, Fan Yang, Ting-Ting Wen, Yu-Zhao Wang, Department of Trauma Neurosurgery, 948th Army Hospital, People’s Liberation Army, Wusu 832000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Dong-You Zhang, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, 948th Army Hospital, People’s Liberation Army, Wusu 832000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Peng-Li Meng, Department of Nursing, 948th Army Hospital, People’s Liberation Army, Wusu 832000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Meng DF, Zhang DY, Yang F, Meng PL, and Wen TT contributed to data analysis; Meng DF conducted the study and wrote the manuscript; Zhang DY, Yang F, Meng PL, and Wen TT contributed to data collection; Wang YZ supervised the study, guided the research, and revised the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by Army Logistics Department Health Bureau Project, No. QJGYXYJZX-012.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of 948th Army Hospital, People’s Liberation Army (Approval No. ZG-948-011-01).
Clinical trial registration statement: The study was registered at the Clinical Trial Center (http://www.researchregistry.com).
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardians provided written informed consent before enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yu-Zhao Wang, MD, Department of Trauma Neurosurgery, 948th Army Hospital, People’s Liberation Army, No. 1 Haihe East Road, Wusu 832000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. 418067609@qq.com
Received: August 1, 2025
Revised: August 30, 2025
Accepted: October 17, 2025
Published online: January 19, 2026
Processing time: 151 Days and 19.5 Hours
Revised: August 30, 2025
Accepted: October 17, 2025
Published online: January 19, 2026
Processing time: 151 Days and 19.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: In a 2337-patient plateau trial, adding cognitive behavioral therapy to usual care lifted health-knowledge mastery to 94%, halved anxiety and sleep-disorder scores, lengthened effective sleep, and lowered serum hypoxia inducible factor-1α and erythropoietin levels, signaling better hypoxia tolerance. Nursing satisfaction rose to 96%. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a low-cost, high-yield adjunct for high-altitude respiratory patients.