Department of Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, USA; Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
Behav Res Ther. 2016 Jun;81:47-55. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2016.04.001. Epub 2016 Apr 8.
Anxiety disorders contribute substantially to the overall public health burden of psychopathology. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), a fear of anxiety related sensations, is one of the few known malleable risk factors for anxiety pathology. Previous AS reduction treatments have utilized highly trained clinicians. A completely-computerized AS treatment would reduce costs and increase dissemination possibilities. Cognitive bias modification for interpretation biases (CBM-I) interventions have shown clinically significant reductions in anxiety symptoms. Another emerging literature focused on learning has shown context-shifting tasks can greatly increase learning without adding logistical burden to an intervention. The current study evaluated a CBM-I for AS that utilized a context-shifting task to deliver twice the treatment dose of extant interventions.
Single-site randomized controlled trial. Participants completed an intervention appointment, as well as one-week and one-month follow-up assessments.
Individuals with elevated levels of AS.
Single-session computer-delivered CBM-I for AS.
Results indicate that the CBM-I for AS was successful in reducing overall AS (62% post-intervention) and these reductions were maintained through one-month post-intervention (64%). Results also revealed that individuals in the active condition reported significantly less incidents of panic responding to a physiological straw-breathing challenge and that change in interpretation bias significantly mediated the relationship between treatment condition and post-treatment AS reductions.
Taken together, the results show that the current CBM-I intervention was strong in terms of immediate and one-month AS reductions. Given its brevity, low cost, low stigma and portability, this intervention could have substantial impact on reducing the burden of anxiety disorders.
焦虑障碍在精神病理学的整体公共卫生负担中占很大比例。焦虑敏感（AS）是对焦虑相关感觉的恐惧，是少数已知的可改变的焦虑病理风险因素之一。以前的 AS 降低治疗方法使用了高度训练有素的临床医生。完全计算机化的 AS 治疗将降低成本并增加传播的可能性。认知偏差修正解释偏差（CBM-I）干预措施已显示出对焦虑症状的临床显著降低。另一项新兴的学习文献表明，上下文转换任务可以在不增加干预措施的逻辑负担的情况下大大增加学习。目前的研究评估了一种使用上下文转换任务的 AS 的 CBM-I，该任务提供了现存干预措施的两倍治疗剂量。
单站点随机对照试验。参与者完成了干预预约以及一周和一个月的随访评估。
具有较高 AS 水平的个体。
单次计算机提供的 AS 的 CBM-I。
结果表明，AS 的 CBM-I 成功降低了总体 AS（干预后 62%），并且这些降低在干预后一个月时得以维持（64%）。结果还表明，主动组的个体在生理吸 straw 呼吸挑战中报告的惊恐发作事件明显减少，并且解释偏差的变化显著介导了治疗条件与治疗后 AS 降低之间的关系。
综上所述，结果表明，当前的 CBM-I 干预措施在立即和一个月的 AS 降低方面非常有效。鉴于其简洁、低成本、低污名和便携性，该干预措施可能对减轻焦虑障碍的负担产生重大影响。
