Disorders - Anxiety Disorders
Karbasi, A., Arman, S., Maracy, M. R.
Background: Anxiety disorders are one of the most psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents that can cause long life functional disability. The first line treatment for this disorder is cognitive behavioral therapy that has primary, secondary and tertiary preventive effect, but is expensive and long time. Today there is some effort to find short term, group, semi-attendance and low cost therapies. Methods: Subjects were 42 girls (12- 17 y) with at least one anxiety disorder according to DSM-IV-TR with their parents who were divided into two groups randomly: group A which participated in 8 sessions and group B which participated in 4 sessions and the contents of sessions 3, 4, 6, and 7 were recorded on a CD for them. The tests used in this study were: SCARED, CATS, CAIS-C, CAIS-P, conducted before (T0), just after (T1) and three months after the treatment (T2). The collected data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance test using SPSS software package, version 15.0. Results: There was no significant difference between efficacy of semi-attendance group CBT and attendance group CBT in T0, T1 and T2 according to 4 tests (p = 0.311). The difference between the scores of these tests between T0 andT1 and T0 and T2 was significant in both groups (p < 0.001) but the difference between T1 and T2 was not significant. (p = 0.771). CONCLUSIONS: The efficacy of semi-attendance group CBT and attendance group CBT is similar and would sustain after 3 months.
Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 15(5) : 1-8
- Year: 2010
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Disorder established (diagnosed disorder)
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions (any)
, Cognitive & behavioural therapies (CBT)
Christensen, H., Pallister, E., Smale, S., Hickie, I. B., Calear, A. L.
Little is known about the effectiveness of prevention and early intervention programs for young people and adolescents once they leave or dropout from school. The effectiveness of 18 anxiety and 26 depression studies addressing prevention in community programs were identified using systematic review methodology. Anxiety and depression symptoms were reduced in ~60% of the programs. Cognitive behavioral therapy programs were more common than other interventions and were consistently found to lower symptoms or prevent depression or anxiety. Automated or computerized interventions showed promise, with 60% of anxiety programs and 83% of depression programs yielding successful outcomes on at least one measure. Further research is needed to determine the active components of successful programs, to explore cost-effectiveness and scalability factors, to investigate individual predictors of successful outcome, and to design best practice prevention programs.
Journal of Primary Prevention, 31(3) : 139-170
- Year: 2010
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any), Depressive Disorders
- Type: Systematic reviews
-
Stage: Universal prevention
, At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Service Delivery & Improvement, Psychological Interventions (any)
Calear, A. L., Christensen, H.
OBJECTIVE: To identify and describe current internet-based prevention and treatment programs for anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. DATA SOURCES: Systematic search of the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO and PubMed databases conducted in June 2009. STUDY SELECTION: Studies of internet-based programs that addressed anxiety or depression in children and adolescents. No restrictions were placed on study quality. DATA SYNTHESIS: Eight studies of four intervention programs were identified. Programs were delivered via schools, in primary care, through mental health clinics or open access websites. Two were treatment programs, three offered universal prevention, two were indicated prevention programs, and one was a selective prevention program. Study quality was mixed, with three randomised controlled trials in which participants were randomly allocated to the intervention or control condition, one randomised uncontrolled trial, two controlled trials in which participants were not randomly assigned to conditions, and two uncontrolled pre-post evaluations. Two studies targeted anxiety in children, while the remainder addressed depression, or anxiety and depression, in adolescents. All the interventions were based on cognitive behaviour therapy, and six of the eight studies reported post-intervention reductions in symptoms of anxiety and/or depression or improvements in diagnostic ratings. Three of these studies also reported improvements at follow-up. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide early support for the effectiveness of internet-based programs for child and adolescent anxiety and depression. More extensive and rigorous research is needed to further establish the conditions through which effectiveness is enhanced, as well as to develop additional programs to address gaps in the field.
Medical Journal of Australia, 192(11 Suppl) : S12-14
- Year: 2010
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Systematic reviews
-
Stage: Universal prevention
, At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
, Disorder established (diagnosed disorder)
-
Treatment and intervention: Service Delivery & Improvement, Psychological Interventions (any)
, Technology, interventions delivered using technology (e.g. online, SMS)
Bowden, D., Goddard, L., Gruzelier, J.
The study investigated whether participants who received Reiki would show greater health and well-being benefits than a group who received no Reiki. A method of blinding participants to Reiki was also tested, where non-contact Reiki or No-Reiki with random assignment was given to 35 healthy psychology undergraduates whose attention was absorbed in one of three tasks involving self-hypnosis/relaxation. Participants experienced ten 20-min intervention sessions over a period of two and a half to 12 weeks. Reiki was directed by the experimenter who sat behind the participants as they were absorbed in the tasks. Self-report measures of illness symptoms, mood and sleep were assessed pre - post-intervention as was salivary cortisol. While the Reiki group had a tendency towards a reduction in illness symptoms, a substantive increase was seen in the No-Reiki. The Reiki group also had a near-significant comparative reduction in stress, although they also had significantly higher baseline illness symptoms and stress scores. The Reiki blinding was successful - the groups did not differ statistically in their beliefs regarding group membership. The results are suggestive that the Reiki buffered the substantive decline in health in the course of the academic year seen in the No-Reiki group.
Brain Research Bulletin, 81 : 66-72
- Year: 2010
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any), Depressive Disorders
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Universal prevention
-
Treatment and intervention: Complementary & Alternative Interventions (CAM)
, Other complementary & alternative interventions
Delgado, Luis Carlos, Guerra, Pedro, Perakakis, Pandelis, ReyesDelPaso, Gustavo, Vila, Jaime
The present study examines psychological and physiological indices of emotional regulation in non-clinical high worriers after a mindfulness-based training programme aimed at reducing worry. Thirty-six female university students with high Penn State Worry Questionnaire scores were split into two equal intervention groups: (a) mindfulness, and (b) progressive muscle relaxation plus self-instruction to postpone worrying to a specific time of the day. Assessment included clinical questionnaires, daily self-report of number/duration of worry episodes and indices of emotional meta-cognition. A set of somatic and autonomic measures was recorded (a) during resting, mindfulness/relaxation and worrying periods, and (b) during cued and non-cued affective modulation of defence reactions (cardiac defence and eye-blink startle). Both groups showed equal post-treatment improvement in the clinical and daily self-report measures. However, mindfulness participants reported better emotional meta-cognition (emotional comprehension) and showed improved indices of somatic and autonomic regulation (reduced breathing pattern and increased vagal reactivity during evocation of cardiac defense). These findings suggest that mindfulness reduces chronic worry by promoting emotional and physiological regulatory mechanisms contrary to those maintaining chronic worry.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Behaviour Research & Therapy, 48(9) : 873-882
- Year: 2010
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Complementary & Alternative Interventions (CAM)
, Psychological Interventions (any)
, Mindfulness based therapy, Relaxation
Cobham, V. E., Dadds, M. R., Spence, S. H., McDermott, B.
This study reports on the results of a long-term follow-up of 60 (29 girls and 31 boys, all of Caucasian ethnicity) children and adolescents diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and treated 3 years earlier with child-focused cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) or child-focused CBT plus parental anxiety management (PAM). Sixty-seven children aged 7 to -14 years were assigned to either the "child anxiety only" or the "child + parental anxiety" condition based on parents' trait anxiety scores. Within conditions, participants were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment conditions. Results indicated that at follow-up, parental anxiety did not represent a risk factor for children's treatment outcome. In addition at follow-up, children who received the combined CBT + PAM intervention (regardless of parental anxiety status) were significantly more likely to be anxiety diagnosis free compared with children who received the child-focused CBT intervention only. (copyright) Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 39(3) : 410-420
- Year: 2010
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Disorder established (diagnosed disorder)
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions (any)
, Cognitive & behavioural therapies (CBT)
, Other Psychological Interventions
Sawada, T., Yokoi, K
European journal of clinical nutrition, 64(3) : 331
- Year: 2010
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any), Depressive Disorders
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Universal prevention
-
Treatment and intervention: Complementary & Alternative Interventions (CAM)
, Vitamins and supplements
Balle, M., Tortella-Feliu, M.
Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is recognized as an early risk factor for the development of anxiety disorders. This study evaluates whether a brief school-based selective prevention program reduces AS and anxious and depressive symptoms in children and youth. Participants scoring high in AS but without any current psychopathological disorder were selected from a sample of 613 individuals (61% female, 11-17 years old) and randomly assigned to the prevention program (n=47) or to a waiting-list control (WLC) (n=45) group. A normal control (NC) group (n=53) was also included. After treatment, a significant decrease in AS and in anxiety and depressive symptoms were observed in both prevention and WLC groups. Differences between experimental conditions only emerged, partially, at six-month follow-up (FU) with the prevention group (PG) exhibiting significantly lower AS (p<.05), and equalling NCs. Although the magnitude of change in the PG is comparable to that reported in previous studies with longer and more complex prevention programs, a parallel reduction in the WLCs suggests that the observed decrease in the short term could be mostly time-linked. Despite this, our results encourage research into brief preventive interventions at an individual level. (copyright) 2009 Taylor & Francis.
Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 23(1) : 71-85
- Year: 2010
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions (any)
, Other Psychological Interventions
Calear, Alison L., Christensen, Helen, Mackinnon, Andrew, Griffiths, Kathleen M., O'Kearney, Richard
The aim in the current study was to investigate the effectiveness of an online, self-directed cognitive–behavioral therapy program (MoodGYM) in preventing and reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression in an adolescent school-based population. A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted with 30 schools (N = 1,477) from across Australia, with each school randomly allocated to the intervention or wait-list control condition. At postintervention and 6-month follow-up, participants in the intervention condition had significantly lower levels of anxiety than did participants in the wait-list control condition (Cohen’s d = 0.15–0.25). The effects of the MoodGYM program on depressive symptoms were less strong, with only male participants in the intervention condition exhibiting significant reductions in depressive symptoms at postintervention and 6-month follow-up (Cohen’s d = 0.27–0.43). Although small to moderate, the effects obtained in the current study provide support for the utility of universal prevention programs in schools. The effectiveness of booster sessions should be explored in future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)
Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 77(6) : 1021-1032
- Year: 2009
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any), Depressive Disorders
- Type: Controlled clinical trials
-
Stage: Universal prevention
-
Treatment and intervention: Service Delivery & Improvement, Psychological Interventions (any)
, Cognitive & behavioural therapies (CBT)
, Technology, interventions delivered using technology (e.g. online, SMS)
Hunt, C., Andrews, G., Sakashita, C., Crino, R., Erskine, A.
Objective: To assess the effectiveness of an indicated early intervention and prevention programme for anxiety disorders when conducted by school staff. Method: A total of 260 students in their first year of high school with self-reported anxiety symptoms > 1 SD above the mean score of a normative sample were randomly allocated on the basis of their school to an intervention condition led by school staff or to a monitoring condition. Results: There was little difference between conditions at the 2 year and 4 year follow up on self-reported symptoms, and no difference on diagnosis or health-care use. Conclusions: Outcomes associated with indicated prevention programmes led by school staff may not be as strong as those produced by specialist mental health staff. More work is needed to delineate models by which evidence-based treatments can be effectively used in schools.
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 43(4) : 300-304
- Year: 2009
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Controlled clinical trials
-
Stage: At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions (any)
, Other Psychological Interventions
Ginsburg, G. S.
The article presents the intervention model and primary outcomes of a preventive intervention designed to reduce anxiety symptoms and prevent the onset of anxiety disorders in the offspring of parents with anxiety disorders. Participants were 40 volunteer children (mean age = 8.94 years; 45% girls; 90% Caucasian) whose parents met criteria for a broad range of anxiety disorders. Families were randomly assigned to an 8-week cognitive-behavioral intervention, the Coping and Promoting Strength program (CAPS; n = 20) or a wait list control condition (WL; n = 20). Independent evaluators (IEs) conducted diagnostic interviews, and children and parents completed measures of anxiety symptoms. Assessments were conducted pre- and postintervention and 6 and 12 months after the postintervention assessment. On the basis of intent to treat analyses, 30% of the children in the WL group developed an anxiety disorder by the 1-year follow-up compared with 0% in the CAPS group. IE and parent-reported (but not child-reported) levels of anxiety showed significant decreases from the preintervention assessment to the 1-year follow-up assessment in the CAPS but not the WL group. Parental satisfaction with the intervention was high. Findings suggest that a family-based intervention may prevent the onset of anxiety disorders in the offspring of parents with anxiety disorders. (copyright) 2009 American Psychological Association.
Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 77(3) : 580-587
- Year: 2009
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions (any)
, Cognitive & behavioural therapies (CBT)
Hudson, J. L., Rapee, R. M., Deveney, C., Schniering, C. A., Lyneham, H. J., Bovopoulos, N.
OBJECTIVE:: The current trial examined whether a specific cognitive-behavioral treatment package was more efficacious in treating childhood anxiety disorders than a nonspecific support package. METHOD:: One hundred twelve children (aged 7-16 years) with a principal anxiety disorder were randomly allocated to either a group cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) program or a control condition (group support and attention [GSA]). RESULTS:: Overall, results showed that CBT was significantly more efficacious compared with the GSA condition: 68.6% of children in the CBT condition did not meet diagnostic criteria for their principal anxiety diagnosis at 6-month follow-up compared with 45.5% of the children in the GSA condition. The results of the child- and parent-completed measures indicated that, although mothers of CBT children reported significantly greater treatment gains than mothers of GSA children, children reported similar improvements across conditions. CONCLUSIONS:: Specific delivery of cognitive-behavioral skills is more efficacious in the treatment of childhood anxiety than a treatment that includes only nonspecific therapy factors. Copyright (copyright) 2009 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 48(5) : 533-544
- Year: 2009
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Disorder established (diagnosed disorder)
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions (any)
, Cognitive & behavioural therapies (CBT)