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Effects of a transdiagnostic cognitive behaviour therapy-based programme on the natural course of anxiety symptoms in
Alejandro de la Torre-Luque1, Aina Fiol-Veny2, Cecilia A Essau3
1Department of Psychiatry. Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain Centre for Biomedical Research in Mental Health. CIBERSAM, Spain.
Background:
Anxiety disorders frequently have an onset during adolescence, which when left untreated could lead to a chronic course and outcome. This study aimed to examine the way in which a cognitive behaviour therapy-based programme (Super Skills for Life - adolescent version; SSL-A) could change the course of anxiety symptoms through adolescent's behavioural performance and cardiac function.
Method:
Sixty-one adolescents at risk of developing an anxiety disorder (45.30% boys; M = 13.76 years, SD = 0.32) were randomly assigned to either an intervention (IG), placebo (PG), or a waitlist group (WG). Adolescents in the IG participated in SSL-A over an 8-week period. Adolescents in the PG participated in an 8-session school-work programme. Adolescents in the WG did not receive any intervention. Anxiety symptoms were assessed every six months, twice before the intervention, as well as at the post-intervention and six months after the intervention. Participants in the IG additionally underwent a stressful task to assess behavioural performance and cardiac adjustment.
Results:
Adolescents in the IG significantly reported lower levels of social phobia and generalised anxiety symptoms at the follow-up assessment compared to the adolescents in the PG and the WG. They also showed a significant improvement in vocal quality and lower discomfort during a stressful task at post-intervention, and showed attenuated cardiac recovery indexes, in terms of sample entropy.
Limitations:
The study has a small sample size.
Conclusion:
SSL-A changed the natural course of anxiety symptoms, as shown by a significant reduction in social phobia and generalised anxiety symptoms, and a significant improvement in behaviour and physiological (cardiac) function during a stressful situation.
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