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Internet-Based Extinction Therapy for Worry: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Erik Andersson1, Erik Hedman1, Olle Wadström2

  • 1Karolinska Institutet.

Behavior Therapy
|April 10, 2017
PubMed
Summary
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Internet-based extinction therapy (IbET) effectively reduces worry in high-worriers. This novel treatment showed significant improvements in worry symptoms, anxiety, and depression, with results maintained long-term.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Behavioral Therapy

Background:

  • Worry is a common experience affecting both clinical and general populations.
  • Worry can function as a covert behavior to avoid negative emotions.
  • Existing treatments for worry often involve exposure-based strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the efficacy of an Internet-based extinction therapy (IbET) for excessive worry.
  • To test a novel treatment protocol based on an operant model of worry delivered online.
  • To assess the effectiveness of IbET in a large-scale randomized controlled trial.

Main Methods:

  • 140 high-worriers (Penn State Worry Questionnaire score > 56) were randomized to either IbET or a waiting-list (WL) control group.
  • The study employed exposure-based strategies to extinguish catastrophic worry thoughts.
Keywords:
exposureextinctioninternetworry

Related Experiment Videos

  • Outcomes were measured using the PSWQ, alongside secondary measures of anxiety, depression, meta-cognitions, cognitive avoidance, and quality of life.

    • Main Results:

    • IbET demonstrated significant superiority over the WL condition, with a large effect size (d = 1.39) on the PSWQ.
    • 58% of participants in the IbET group were classified as responders, compared to 7% in the WL group.
    • IbET also yielded significant improvements in secondary outcomes and results were sustained at 4- and 12-month follow-ups.

    Conclusions:

    • Internet-based extinction therapy (IbET) is an effective and accessible intervention for targeting excessive worry.
    • The findings support the use of operant conditioning principles and exposure techniques for treating worry.
    • Further research with active control groups is recommended to validate these encouraging results.