Cognitive‐behavioral therapy (CBT) for generalized anxiety disorder: Contrasting various CBT approaches in a randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Objective Cognitive‐behavior therapy (CBT) is considered the “golden standard” psychotherapy for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) but, at this point, we have little information about differences among various CBT approaches. Method We conducted a randomized controlled trial to compare three CBT protocols for GAD: (a) Cognitive Therapy/Borkovec's treatment package; (b) Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and (c) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/Acceptance‐based behavioral therapy. A number of 75 patients diagnosed with GAD, aged between 20 and 51 (m = 27.13; standard deviation = 7.50), 60 women and 11 men, were randomized to the three treatment arms. Results All treatments were associated with large pre‐post intervention reductions in GAD symptoms and dysfunctional automatic thoughts, with no significant differences between groups. Correlation analyses showed similar associations between changes in symptoms and changes in dysfunctional automatic thoughts. Conclusions All three approaches appear to be similarly effective. Implications for the theoretical models underlying each of the three cognitive‐behavior therapy approaches are discussed.

Development and evaluation of an internet-based treatment for generalized anxiety disorder : An acceptance-based approach

“…The within-groups effects from study II was replicated in study III reporting similar effects. The within-and-between groups effects reported in study I-III are comparable to effects from other internet-based treatments for GAD (Titov et al, 2016), as well as face-to-face treatments (Stefan et al, 2019) indicating that Oroshjälpen is an effective treatment.…”

“…The ACT group made a steeper change in worry during treatment but the differences in change was levelled out at follow-up. A recent study randomized 75 participants into Borkovec's treatment, rational-emotive therapy or ACT/ABBT (Stefan, Cristea, Szentagotai Tatar, & David, 2019). The treatments included 20 sessions, delivered twice a week during the first eight weeks then once a week.…”

Information seeking and health anxiety during the COVID‐19 pandemic: The mediating role of catastrophic cognitions

“…Cognitive–behavioural therapy is an effective treatment for health anxiety that can decrease both catastrophic cognitions and information seeking (Olatunji et al, 2014 ). Working to evaluate and reframe catastrophic cognitions through cognitive–behavioural techniques has shown to be useful in other conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder (Stefan et al, 2019 ) and fibromyalgia (Lazaridou et al, 2017 ; Nelson & Tucker, 2006 ) and may be helpful to apply in the context of health anxiety. Within the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic, positive reframing has been the most effective coping strategy to maintain mental health and quality of life (Shamblaw et al, 2021 ) providing further support for the efficacy of the cognitive–behavioural approaches.…”

The use of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) to increase the self-determined motivation and psychological well-being of triathletes.

“…A good example of how constructive criticism could be approached in applied research can be seen in the recent work of Latinjak, Hernando-Gimeno, Lorido-Méndez, and Hardy (2019). But more broadly, much of the extant REBT research draws on single-case designs, and future research should concentrate on the use of more experimental designs such as those including control groups (e.g., Turner, Slater, & Barker, 2015) and randomised control trials (e.g., Stefan, Cristea, Szentagotai-Tatar, & David 2019).…”