Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety-disordered youth:

This study examined secondary outcomes of a randomized clinical trial that evaluated an individual cognitive-behavioral (ICBT), family-based cognitive-behavioral (FCBT), and family-based education, support and attention (FESA) treatment for anxious youth. Participants (161) were between 7 and 14 years (M=10.27) of age and had a principal diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, and/or generalized anxiety disorder. Hierarchical linear modeling examined youth-reported depressive symptomatology and parent- and teacher-reported externalizing behavior and adaptive functioning at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 1-year follow-up. In general, youth in all treatments evidenced improvements in most domains, with improvements maintained at follow-up. Overall, gender and age did not moderate treatment outcomes. The results suggest that both child and family cognitive-behavioral therapy, and the family-based supportive approach used in this study, can be effective in addressing some of the associated symptoms and adaptive functioning deficits typically linked to anxiety in youth.

J Anxiety Disord. 2009 Apr;23(3):341-9. Suveg C, Hudson JL, Brewer G, Flannery-Schroeder E, Gosch E, Kendall PC. Psychology Building, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. csuveg@uga.edu