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Guided and unguided CBT for social anxiety disorder and/or panic disorder via the Internet and a smartphone
Philip Lindner, Ekaterina Ivanova, Kien Hoa Ly
1Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. per@carlbring.se.
Background:
Smartphone technology presents a novel and promising opportunity to extend the reach of psychotherapeutic interventions by moving selected parts of the therapy into the real-life situations causing distress. This randomised controlled trial will investigate the effects of a transdiagnostic, Internet-administered cognitive behavioural (iCBT) self-help program for anxiety, supplemented with a smartphone application. The effect of added therapist support will also be studied.
Methods/Design:
One hundred and fifty participants meeting diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder and/or panic disorder will be evenly randomised to either one of three study groups: 1, smartphone-supplemented iCBT with therapist support; 2, smartphone-supplemented iCBT without therapist support; or 3, an active waiting list control group with delayed treatment. Primary outcome measure will be the Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7-item self-rating scale. Secondary measures include other anxiety, depression and quality of life measures. In addition to pre- and post-treatment measurements, the study includes two mid-treatment (days 24 and 48) and two follow-up assessments (12 and 36 months) to assess rapid and long-term effects.
Discussion:
To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effectiveness of smartphone-supplemented iCBT for anxiety disorders. Hence, the findings from this trial will constitute great advancements in the burgeoning and promising field of smartphone-administered psychological interventions. Limitations are discussed.
Trial Registration:
Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01963806.
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