Disorders - Anxiety Disorders
Salzmann, S., Euteneuer, F., Strahler, J., Laferton, J. A. C., Nater, U. M., Rief, W.
BACKGROUND: A
new approach of psychological interventions prior to stress aiming to optimize expectations may have beneficial effects on a person's health status
by reducing physiological stress. The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether a brief psychological intervention designed to optimize
personal control expectations prior to acute stress would affect perceived and biological stress responsiveness in comparison to two more established
interventions (fostering gratitude or distraction) in a healthy sample.\rMETHODS: 74 healthy participants were randomized to one of three
psychological interventions prior to stress: (i) writing about ways to influence stress to optimize personal control expectations (EXPECTATION), (ii)
writing a gratitude-letter (GRATITUDE) (iii) or a distraction writing task (DISTRACTION). After completing the intervention, the Maastricht acute
stress test was administered to induce (psychosocial and physiological) stress. Assessments took place at baseline, post-intervention (15min writing
task) and after stress induction (additional salivary assessments: 15 and 30min after stress). Main outcomes were expectations, emotions, perceived
stress, salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase. Personality traits (eg, optimism) were assessed at baseline.\rRESULTS: EXPECTATION specifically
increased personal control expectations (p=.016, d=.72) and GRATITUDE specifically increased gratitude (p=.026, d=.68). EXPECTATION and DISTRACTION
led to lower cortisol concentrations after stress induction than GRATITUDE (time x group interaction: p<.001, d=.88). We detected no intervention
effects on alpha-amylase or perceived stress. Optimism moderated intervention effects on cortisol (p=.023, d=.74).\rCONCLUSIONS: Brief psychological
interventions aiming to optimize expectations or distraction prior to stress reduce the cortisol response in healthy participants after an acute
stressor.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 88 : 144-152
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Universal prevention
-
Treatment and intervention: Complementary & Alternative
Interventions (CAM), Creative expression: music, dance, drama, art
Sang, H., Tan,
D.
The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the
effectiveness of a social skills training program for Chinese students' internalizing behavior disorders symptoms reduction. Additionally, the study
aimed to clarify whether the use of social skills training program would lead to better outcome than the use of daily usual program. Our RCT study
randomly assigned 29 students who were suspected of internalizing behavior disorders to an intervention group in which students received a
cognitive-behavioral approach-based social skills training program (n = 16) or to a control group with daily usual program during the period (n =
13). The analyses suggest that students receiving the social skills training program reported a significantly decrease of anxiety, depression and
withdrawal symptoms during the end of the intervention and follow-up interval than did students in the control group. Cognitive-behavioral approach-
based social skills interventions may help increase the sustainability of outcome after treatment for internalizing behavior disorders symptoms.
Copyright © 2018, Anka Publishers. All rights reserved.
NeuroQuantology, 16(5) : 104-109
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any), Depressive Disorders
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions
(any), Skills training
Schleider,
J., Weisz, J.
Background: Single-session interventions (SSIs) show promise in the prevention and treatment of youth
psychopathology, carrying potential to improve the scalability and accessibility of youth psychological services. However, existing SSIs have
conferred greater benefits for youths with anxiety, compared to depression or comorbid problems, and their effects have generally waned over time-
particularly for follow-ups exceeding 3 months. Method: To help address these discrepancies, we tested whether a novel SSI teaching growth mindset of
personality (the belief that personality is malleable) could reduce depression and anxiety and strengthen perceived control in high-risk adolescents
(N = 96, ages 12-15). At baseline, youths were randomized to receive a 30-min, computer-guided growth mindset intervention or a supportive-therapy
control. Youths and parents reported youth anxiety and depressive symptoms, and youths reported their levels of perceived control, at baseline and
across a 9-month follow-up period. Results: Compared to the control program, the mindset intervention led to significantly greater improvements in
parent-reported youth depression (d = .60) and anxiety (d = .28), youth-reported youth depression (d = .32), and youth-reported perceived behavioral
control (d = .29) by 9-month follow-up. Intervention effects were nonsignificant for youth-reported anxiety, although 9-month effect sizes reached
the small-to-medium range (d = .33). Intervention group youths also experienced more rapid improvements in parent-reported depression, youth-reported
depression, and perceived behavioral control across the follow-up period, compared to control group youths. Conclusions: Findings suggest a
promising, scalable SSI for reducing internalizing distress in high-risk adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights
reserved)
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 59(2) : 160-170
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any), Depressive Disorders
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Service Delivery & Improvement, Psychological Interventions
(any), Supportive
therapy, Other Psychological Interventions, Technology, interventions delivered using technology (e.g. online, SMS)
Schoneveld, E. A., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Granic, I.
A large proportion of children experience subclinical
levels of anxiety and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) aimed at preventing anxiety disorders is moderately effective. However, most at-risk
children do not seek help or drop out of programs prematurely because of stigma, lack of motivation, and accessibility barriers. Applied games have
received increased attention as viable alternatives and have shown promising results, but direct comparisons between applied games and the gold-
standard CBT are lacking. Our aim was to investigate whether the applied game MindLight is as effective as CBT (i.e., Coping Cat) within an indicated
prevention context. We conducted a randomized controlled non-inferiority trial with a sample of 174 children (7- to 12-year olds) with elevated
levels of anxiety, comparing MindLight to CBT. Anxiety was assessed with self- and parent-reports at pre- and post-program, and at 3- and 6-month
follow-ups. Intention-to-treat and completers-only confidence interval approach and latent growth curve modeling showed an overall significant
quadratic decrease in child- and parent-reported anxiety symptoms over time and, as predicted, the magnitude of improvement was the same for
MindLight and CBT. The within-group effect sizes were small to medium at post-test (-0.32 to - 0.63), and medium to large (- 0.60 to - 1.07) at 3-
and 6-month follow-ups. Furthermore, MindLight and CBT were rated equally anxiety inducing, difficult, and appealing; CBT was rated as more relevant
to daily life than MindLight. The current study adds to the growing research on applied games for mental health and shows that these games hold
potential as alternative delivery models for evidence-based therapeutic techniques. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
Prevention Science, 19(2) : 220-
232
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Service Delivery & Improvement, Psychological Interventions
(any), Cognitive & behavioural therapies (CBT), Exposure therapy, Exposure
and response prevention, Attention/cognitive bias
modification, Biofeedback, neurofeedback, audio/video feedback, Technology, interventions delivered using technology (e.g. online, SMS)
Selmi, W., Rebai, H., Chtara, M., Naceur, A., Sahli, S.
The study aimed to investigate the effects of repeated sprint (RS)
training on somatic anxiety (SA), cognitive anxiety (CA), self-confidence (SC), rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and repeated sprint ability (RSA)
indicators in elite young soccer players. Thirty elite soccer players in the first football league (age: 17.8 +/- 0.9 years) volunteered to
participate in this study. They were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a repeated sprint training group (RST-G; n = 15) and a control group
(CON-G; n = 15). RST-G participated in 6 weeks of intensive training based on RS (6 x (20 + 20 m) runs, with 20 s passive recovery interval between
sprints, 3 times/week). Before and after the 6-week intervention, all participants performed a RSA test and completed a Competitive Scale Anxiety
Inventory (CSAI-2) and the RPE. After training RST-G showed a very significant (p < 0.000) increase in RSA total time performance relative to
controls. Despite the faster sprint pace, the RPE also decreased significantly (p < 0.005) in RST-G, and their self confidence was significantly
greater (p < 0.01), while the cognitive (p < 0.01) and somatic (p < 0.000) components of their anxiety state decreased. When practiced regularly,
short bouts of sprint exercises improve anaerobic performance associated with a reduction in anxiety state and an increase in SC which may probably
boost competitive performance. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc.
Physiology and Behavior, 188 : 42-47
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Universal prevention
-
Treatment and intervention: Complementary & Alternative
Interventions (CAM), Physical activity, exercise
Shen, L., Yang, L., Zhang, J., Zhang, M.
PURPOSE: To explore the effect of
expressive writing of positive emotions on test anxiety among senior-high-school students.\rMETHODS: The Test Anxiety Scale (TAS) was used to assess
the anxiety level of 200 senior-high-school students. Seventy-five students with high anxiety were recruited and divided randomly into experimental
and control groups. Each day for 30 days, the experimental group engaged in 20 minutes of expressive writing of positive emotions, while the control
group was asked to merely write down their daily events. A second test was given after the month-long experiment to analyze whether there had been a
reduction in anxiety among the sample. Quantitative data was obtained from TAS scores. The NVivo10.0 software program was used to examine the
frequency of particular word categories used in participants' writing manuscripts.\rRESULTS: Senior-high-school students indicated moderate to high
test anxiety. There was a significant difference in post-test results (P < 0.001), with the experimental group scoring obviously lower than the
control group. The interaction effect of group and gender in the post-test results was non-significant (P > 0.05). Students' writing manuscripts
were mainly encoded on five code categories: cause, anxiety manifestation, positive emotion, insight and evaluation. There was a negative relation
between positive emotion, insight codes and test anxiety. There were significant differences in the positive emotion, anxiety manifestation, and
insight code categories between the first 10 days' manuscripts and the last 10 days' ones.\rCONCLUSIONS: Long-term expressive writing of positive
emotions appears to help reduce test anxiety by using insight and positive emotion words for Chinese students. Efficient and effective intervention
programs to ease test anxiety can be designed based on this study.
, 13(2) : e0191779
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Complementary & Alternative
Interventions (CAM), Creative expression: music, dance, drama, art
Suveg, C., Jones, A., Davis, M., Jacob, M.
L., Morelen, D., Thomassin, K.,
Difficulties with emotion regulation are a core feature of
anxiety disorders (ADs) in children and adults. Interventions with a specific focus on emotion regulation are gaining empirical support. Yet, no
studies to date have compared the relative efficacy of such interventions to existing evidence-based treatments. Such comparisons are necessary to
determine whether emotion-focused treatments might be more effective for youth exhibiting broad emotion-regulation difficulties at pretreatment. This
study examined an emotion-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (ECBT) protocol in comparison to traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in a
sample of children with a primary anxiety disorder diagnosis. Moderation analyses examined whether children with higher levels of emotion
dysregulation at pretreatment would show greater levels of improvement in ECBT than CBT. Ninety-two youth ages 7 to 12 years (58% male) with a
primary diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or social phobia were included. Participants were randomly assigned
to ECBT or CBT. Results showed that youth in both conditions demonstrated similar improvements in emotion regulation and that pretreatment levels of
emotion dysregulation did not moderate treatment outcomes. Additional analyses showed that ECBT and CBT were similarly effective on diagnostic,
severity, and improvement measures. Future work is needed to further explore the ways that emotion regulation is related to treatment outcome for
anxious youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 46(3) : 569-
580
- Year: 2018
- 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
Theurel, A., Gentaz, E.
Two experiments
addressed the issue of age-related differences and emotion-specific patterns in emotion regulation during adolescence. Experiment 1 examined
emotion-specific patterns in the effectiveness of reappraisal and distraction strategies in 14-year-old adolescents (N = 50). Adolescents were
instructed to answer spontaneously or to downregulate their responses by using either distraction or cognitive reappraisal strategies before viewing
negative pictures and were asked to rate their emotional state after picture presentation. Results showed that reappraisal effectiveness was
modulated by emotional content but distraction was not. Reappraisal was more effective than distraction at regulating fear or anxiety (threat-related
pictures) but was similar to distraction regarding other emotions. Using the same paradigm, Experiment 2 examined in 12-year-old (N = 56), 13-year-
old (N = 49) and 15-year-old adolescents (N = 54) the age-related differences a) in the effectiveness of reappraisal and distraction when implemented
and b) in the everyday use of regulation strategies using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Results revealed that regulation
effectiveness was equivalent for both strategies in 12-year-olds, whereas a large improvement in reappraisal effectiveness was observed in 13- and
15-year-olds. No age differences were observed in the reported use of reappraisal, but older adolescents less frequently reported using distraction
and more frequently reported using the rumination strategy. Taken together, these experiments provide new findings regarding the use and the
effectiveness of cognitive regulation strategies during adolescence in terms of age differences and emotion specificity. Copyright © 2018 Theurel,
Gentaz. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PLoS
ONE, 13 (6) (no pagination)(e0195501) :
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Universal prevention
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions
(any), Other Psychological Interventions, Attention/cognitive bias
modification
Tolgou,
T., Rohrmann, S., Stockhausen, C., Krampen, D., Warnecke, I., Reiss, N.
Previous research has shown that intrusions are part of the psychopathology of
mental disorders. Imagery techniques seem to be an effective treatment of negative intrusions. Since negative mental imagery is part of health
anxiety, the present study investigated the impact of imagery techniques on health anxiety. A total of 159 students with elevated scores in a health
anxiety questionnaire watched an aversive film concerning a cancer patient and were randomly allocated to one of three interventions (positive
imagery, imagery reexperiencing, imagery rescripting) or the control group. The intervention lasted 9 min. Physiological data (heart rate and
cortisol) as well as psychological measures, such as mood ratings, health anxiety scores, and intrusions, were assessed during the appointment, while
psychological measures were assessed over a period of 1 week after the intervention. Cortisol levels changed over time depending on the intervention.
Heart rate changed during the 9-min interventions as well, with the fastest decrease during imagery rescripting. Moreover, negative mood and distress
decreased after the intervention, while intrusions were reduced 1 week after the intervention in all groups equally. The results suggest that imagery
rescripting is a promising technique that seems to activate a process of deep elaboration. Therefore, it might be an adequate way to target health
anxiety symptoms such as anxiety, intrusions, and avoidance or safety-seeking behavior. Further studies should focus on imagery rescripting in
clinical samples with health anxiety and target individual intrusive images to increase effectiveness. Nevertheless, the development of a long-term
explanatory model of rescripting is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
Psychophysiology, 55(2) : 1-12
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions
(any), Other Psychological Interventions
Van-der-Gucht,
K., Takano, K., Raes, F., Kuppens, P.
The underlying
mechanisms of the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for emotional well-being remain poorly understood. Here, we examined the potential
mediating effects of cognitive reactivity and self-compassion on symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress using data from an earlier randomised
controlled school trial. A moderated time-lagged mediation model based on multilevel modelling was used to analyse the data. The findings showed that
post-treatment changes in cognitive reactivity and self-coldness, an aspect of self-compassion, mediated subsequent changes in symptoms of
depression, anxiety and stress. These results suggest that cognitive reactivity and self-coldness may be considered as transdiagnostic mechanisms of
change of a mindfulness-based intervention programme for youth. Copyright © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Cognition and Emotion, 32(3) : 658-665
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Universal prevention
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions
(any), Mindfulness based
therapy
Weitkamp, K., Daniels, J. K., Baumeister-Duru, A., Wulf, A., Romer, G., Wiegand-Grefe, S.
Background The aim of the study was to look at symptom changes in
naturalistic outpatient psychoanalytic child and adolescent psychotherapy for anxiety disorders in Germany. Methods (1) The first treatment period of
the psychodynamic intervention group (<25 sessions) was compared with a minimal supportive treatment (waiting list) control group, and (2) the
effects of long-term psychoanalytical treatment (>25 sessions) were analysed using a longitudinal observational design. A total of 86 children and
adolescents (4-21 years) were in the treatment group and 35 in the minimal supportive treatment control group. Questionnaires were administered at
the beginning and end of treatment, as well as at 6- and 12-month follow-up (FU). Results When comparing the first treatment period with the minimal
supportive treatment control group, both groups improved significantly with small effect sizes and no significant group differences. Both parents and
patients reported moderate symptom improvements at the end of therapy (parent: d=0.58; patient: d=0.57), which were stable at FU and increased from
the patient perspective (parent: d=0.37; patient: d=0.80). Conclusions The results suggest that anxiety symptoms significantly decreased during the
treatment period and remained stable at FU. Due to the study design we could not rule out alternative explanations like regression to the mean.
Copyright © 2018 BPF and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
British Journal of Psychotherapy, 34(2) : 300-
318
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any)
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
-
Stage: Disorder established (diagnosed disorder)
-
Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions
(any), Psychodynamic/Psychoanalysis
Abuwalla, Z., Clark, M. D., Burke, B., Tannenbaum, V., Patel, S., Mitacek, R., Gladstone, T., Van-Voorhees, B.
Introduction This rapid review identifies and summarizes the effectiveness of
preventative telemental health interventions. It investigates studies conducted between 2010 and 2016 that improve mood and anxiety with long-term
follow-up. Methods A literature search of three major databases was performed by four reviewers. After citation tracing, 3604 studies were
discovered, and twenty of these met the inclusion criteria. Data from the papers were abstracted, assessed for quality, and effect sizes were
calculated. Results Salient information was discussed using the Behavioural Vaccine Model of mental illness prevention. This included key concepts
such as efficacy, duration of benefits, sociocultural relevance, professional guidance, peer-to-peer support, adherence, delivery and safety.
Conclusion This review suggests there are clear prolonged benefits to using technology in youth mental illness prevention. Although this is a rapidly
growing area of investigation in countries around the globe, there is still a dearth of research with long-term follow-up. Future studies should aim
to boost engagement by increasing motivational guidance in order to recruit at-risk youth of all demographics into these promising intervention
programs. Copyright © 2017
Internet
Interventions, 11 : 20-29
- Year: 2018
- Problem: Anxiety Disorders (any), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depressive Disorders
- Type: Systematic reviews
-
Stage: Universal prevention, At risk (indicated or selected prevention)
-
Treatment and intervention: Service Delivery & Improvement, Psychological Interventions
(any), Cognitive & behavioural therapies (CBT), Skills training, Attention/cognitive bias
modification, Technology, interventions delivered using technology (e.g. online, SMS)