Transdiagnostic group CBT for anxiety disorders: the unified protocol in mental health services

TY - JOUR

T1 - Transdiagnostic group CBT for anxiety disorders

T2 - the unified protocol in mental health services

AU - Reinholt, Nina

AU - Aharoni, Ruth

AU - Winding, Clas

AU - Rosenberg, Nicole

AU - Rosenbaum, Bent

AU - Arnfred, Sidse

PY - 2017/1/2

Y1 - 2017/1/2

N2 - Comorbidity among the anxiety disorders is common and may negatively impact treatment outcome. Potentially, transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatments (CBT) deal more effectively with comorbidity than standard CBT. The present study tested the effectiveness of The Unified Protocol (UP) applied to Mental Health Services. Pre-post-treatment effects were examined for psychiatric outpatients with anxiety disorders receiving UP treatment in groups. Forty-seven patients (mean-age = 34.1 (SD = 9.92), 77% females) with a principal diagnosis of anxiety were included. We found significant and clinically meaningful changes in the primary outcomes Clinical Global Impression Severity Scale (CGI-S; d = 1.36), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HARS; d = .71), and WHO-5 Well-being Index (WHO-5; d = .54). Also, comorbid depressive symptoms and levels of positive and negative affect changed significantly after treatment. Patients with high levels of comorbidity profited as much as patients with less comorbidity; however, these patients had higher scores after treatment due to higher symptom burden at onset. Patients with comorbid depression profited more from treatment than patients without comorbid depression. The treatment effects found in the present study correspond to treatment effects of other TCBT studies, other UP group studies, and effectiveness studies on standard CBT for outpatients. The results indicate that the UP can be successfully applied to a MHS group setting, demonstrating positive effects on anxiety and depressive symptoms for even highly comorbid cases.

AB - Comorbidity among the anxiety disorders is common and may negatively impact treatment outcome. Potentially, transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatments (CBT) deal more effectively with comorbidity than standard CBT. The present study tested the effectiveness of The Unified Protocol (UP) applied to Mental Health Services. Pre-post-treatment effects were examined for psychiatric outpatients with anxiety disorders receiving UP treatment in groups. Forty-seven patients (mean-age = 34.1 (SD = 9.92), 77% females) with a principal diagnosis of anxiety were included. We found significant and clinically meaningful changes in the primary outcomes Clinical Global Impression Severity Scale (CGI-S; d = 1.36), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HARS; d = .71), and WHO-5 Well-being Index (WHO-5; d = .54). Also, comorbid depressive symptoms and levels of positive and negative affect changed significantly after treatment. Patients with high levels of comorbidity profited as much as patients with less comorbidity; however, these patients had higher scores after treatment due to higher symptom burden at onset. Patients with comorbid depression profited more from treatment than patients without comorbid depression. The treatment effects found in the present study correspond to treatment effects of other TCBT studies, other UP group studies, and effectiveness studies on standard CBT for outpatients. The results indicate that the UP can be successfully applied to a MHS group setting, demonstrating positive effects on anxiety and depressive symptoms for even highly comorbid cases.

KW - Adult

KW - Affect

KW - Anxiety Disorders/epidemiology

KW - Cognitive Therapy

KW - Comorbidity

KW - Denmark/epidemiology

KW - Depression/epidemiology

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Psychotherapy, Group

KW - Single-Blind Method

KW - Treatment Outcome

KW - Young Adult

U2 - 10.1080/16506073.2016.1227360

DO - 10.1080/16506073.2016.1227360

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27705086

SN - 1650-6073

VL - 46

SP - 29

EP - 43

JO - Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

JF - Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

IS - 1

ER -