Telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for high anxiety sensitivity: a randomized controlled trial

High anxiety sensitivity (AS) is associated with the development and maintenance of anxiety and depressive symptoms and is theorized to be a mediator of treatment outcomes for anxiety and depression. The present study tested the efficacy of a telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention in reducing high AS and its associated anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Treatment-seeking participants with high AS were recruited from the community (N = 80; M age = 36 years; 79% women; 76% Caucasian) and were randomly assigned to an 8-week telephone-delivered CBT program or a waiting list control. Participants completed anxiety and depression symptom and diagnostic measures at pre- and posttreatment, after a subsequent 4 weeks of continued interoceptive exposure, and 8 weeks later.

Multilevel modeling showed the treatment was successful in reducing AS, as well as panic, social phobia, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and number of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnoses per participant when compared to a waiting list control. These gains were maintained at follow-up. Generalized anxiety and depressive symptoms, however, did not improve as a result of treatment. Mediated moderation analyses suggested that treatment-related changes in AS may mediate anxiety symptom changes.

RESULTS of the present study provide promising evidence for this transdiagnostic treatment approach. Reductions in anxiety symptoms across diagnostic categories stemming from this AS-targeted intervention may have implications for helping a broad array of clients with various anxiety disorders that share AS as a common risk or maintenance factor.