Positive Health Online

Abstract

NORTON and PRICE, Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5022, USA investigated the efficacy of  cognitive behavioural treatments (CBT) for anxiety disorders in adults.

Background

The efficacy of cognitive behavioural treatments (CBT) for anxiety in adults has been supported by multiple meta-analyses. However, most have focused on only 1 diagnosis, thereby disallowing diagnostic comparisons.

Methodology

This study examined the efficacy of CBT across the anxiety disorders. One hundred eight trials of CBT for an anxiety disorder met study criteria.

Results

Cognitive therapy and exposure therapy alone, in combination, or combined with relaxation training, were efficacious across the anxiety disorders, with no differential efficacy for any treatment components for any specific diagnoses. However, when comparing across diagnoses, outcomes for generalized anxiety disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder were superior to those for social anxiety disorder, but no other differences emerged.

Conclusion

CBT effects were superior to those for no-treatment and expectancy control treatments, although tentative evidence suggested equal effects of CBT when compared with relaxation-only treatments.

References

Norton PJ and  Price EC. A meta-analytic review of adult cognitive-behavioral treatment outcome across the anxiety disorders. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease. 195(6): 521-31. Jun 2007.