The aim of the current study was to test the efficacy of an individually administered, brief (5-session) transdiagnostic treatment for anxiety disorders. The current treatment (called F-SET) focuses chiefly on the elimination of anxiety maintaining behaviors and cognitive strategies (so-called "safety" aids) among individuals suffering from a range of anxiety disorders including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD) and panic disorder (PD). We hypothesized that the F-SET protocol would produce better overall outcome relative to a waitlist control.
The aim of the current study was to test the efficacy of an individually administered, brief (5-session) transdiagnostic treatment for anxiety disorders. The current treatment (called F-SET) focuses chiefly on the elimination of anxiety maintaining behaviors and cognitive strategies (so-called "safety" aids) among individuals suffering from a range of anxiety disorders including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD) and panic disorder (PD). Four primary hypotheses were evaluated in the current study: (1) the F-SET protocol would produce better overall outcome relative to a waitlist control, (2) the F-SET protocol would yield clinically significant improvement of primary diagnosis symptoms as well as secondary diagnosis symptoms, (3) the F-SET protocol would create treatment improvement that is maintained during a 1 month follow-up interval and (4) given that reduction of safety aid use is the key mechanism of change in the F-SET treatment, a reduction in safety aid use will mediate the relationship between pre and post treatment.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
28
F-SET treatment consisted of five weekly individual sessions (approximately 50 minutes each). The participants learn to techniques and skills to help them reduce their anxiety. F-SET protocol is consistent with current CBT protocols for anxiety disorders.
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida, United States
The Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV
Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV (SCID-IV). The SCID-IV (Spitzer, Gibbon, \& Williams, 1996) is a structured diagnostic interview designed to provide detailed coverage of Axis-I disorders. The SCID-IV has been shown to be a reliable and valid measure of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fourth edition-text revision; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) Axis I disorders (Zanarini et al., 2000).
Time frame: One Month Follow-up
Clinician Global Impressions Scale (CGI) - Severity of Illness Subscale
Clinician Global Impressions Scale (CGI) - Severity of Illness Subscale. The CGI (Guy, 1976) is a widely used clinician-rated measure of global impressions. The severity of illness subscale from the CGI is composed of a 7-point scale (ranging from 0=not at all ill to 6=among the most extremely ill patients) and is used to assess
Time frame: One Month Follow-up
Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS)
Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS). The WSAS is a 5-item descriptive measure of subjective interference in various life domains (i.e., work, home management, private leisure, and family relationships). Interference in the past week is rated from 0 (not at all interfering) to 8 (severe interference). The WSAS has demonstrated good internal consistency and has been successfully used in previous studies (e.g., Brown \& Barlow, 1995; Ellard, Fairholme, Boisseau, Farchione, \& Barlow, 2010). The WSAS was used as an index of overall disability and impairment. The WSAS demonstrated good internal consistency in the present sample (mean inter-item correlation = .28).
Time frame: One Month Follow-up
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