Transdiagnostic Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Individuals with Anxiety Disorders: An Open Trial

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of a transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy (tCBT) protocol in an individual delivery format, adapted from a protocol that has been extensively evaluated in a group delivery format.tCBT was provided to a cohort (N = 18) of adults with a range of anxiety disorders (55.6% male; M age = 40.6, SD = 17.6), at a speciality anxiety disorder research clinic. A within-subjects repeated measures design was employed. Pre-to-post-treatment diagnostic assessments were analysed through repeated measures analysis of variance, and session-by-session self-reported measures of anxiety, depression, and quality of life were modelled through mixed-effect regression modelling (MRM) to maximise the sample of treatment initiators.Significant and large reductions for clinician-rated primary diagnosis severity (Hedges g = 1.63), and overall clinical global impressions (g = 1.43) were observed, and self-reported anxiety and depression symptoms showed significant reductions over the course of treatment with medium-to-large effect sizes (g = 0.66 and 0.74, respectively). Significant improvement to quality of life was also observed with medium effect size (g = 0.53).There is now preliminary support for the use of an adaptation of an established group-based tCBT protocol for use with individuals. Implications and recommendations for future investigations are provided.