Group cognitive -behavioral therapy for heterogeneous anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: A multiple baseline study

This study investigated the efficacy of Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (GCBT) in the treatment of heterogeneous anxiety disorders in children. A partially nonconcurrent multiple baseline across groups design was used to assess the effects of the treatment on 12 clinically referred children and adolescents between 6 and 16 years of age who met DSM-IV criteria for an anxiety disorder. Targeted diagnoses included Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Simple Phobia, Separation Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, with three of the children also presenting with school refusal behavior. Duration of baseline for each of the three groups varied and ran for one, two, or three weeks. Dependent measures included diagnostic status, child and parent-completed reports, and daily child and parent ratings of child anxiety severity. Results indicated that GCBT was efficacious in reducing anxious symptoms in children and adolescents treated in diagnostically heterogeneous groups, and that gains were generally maintained at 6 and 12 month follow-ups. Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications for the efficient treatment of children and adolescents with anxiety disorders. ^

Examination of the overlap between DSM-111-R overanxious disorder and DSM-IV generalized anxiety disorder in childhood

Since DSM-III-R criteria for Overanxious Disorder (OAD) was subsumed under Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in DSM-IV, three studies have investigated the overlap between the diagnoses. Although two studies have identified children meeting both OAD and GAD criteria (OAD/GAD group), a third study has identified children who met criteria for OAD, but not GAD (OAD group). Based on finding these two groups of children, we examined whether children in the OAD group (n= 30) could be differentiated from children in the OAD/GAD group (n=81) based on self and parent report of anxious symptoms and level of functional impairment. Conditional probability rates were also calculated for each of the DSM anxious symptoms to determine their overall clinicalutility. Findings revealed that the OAD group of children experienced fewer anxious symptoms than children in the OAD/GAD group, though both groups showed some amount of impairment. The implications for research and practice are discussed.