Psychological Treatment of Anxiety: The Evolution of Behavior Therapy and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

The development of evidence-based treatments for anxiety disorders is a major achievement of clinical psychology, and cognitive behavior therapy is the best-established and most widely used method. The first form of this therapy, behavior therapy, was a combination of Pavlovian and Behavioristic ideas and methods and was particularly successful in reducing fears. The infusion of cognitive ideas in the late 1970s generated the wider and more flexible cognitive behavior therapy that independent agencies in the United States and United Kingdom now recommend as the treatment of choice for most of the anxiety disorders. Remaining theoretical problems and clinical limitations need to be tackled. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology Volume 5 is March 27, 2009. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.

Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2008 Dec 16. Rachman S. Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4 Canada; email: rachman@interchange.ubc.ca.