A case series of attention modification in clinically anxious youths
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were 16 clinically anxious youths ages 10–17 (M = 14.00, SD = 2.66) presenting for services at a youth internalizing disorders treatment research center. Youths were included in the case series if they (a) met for a primary diagnosis of either Separation Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, or Generalized Anxiety Disorder, (b) were aged 8–17, (c) lived with a legal, consenting guardian for the past six months, (d) spoke proficient English, (e) showed no evidence of suicidal ideation with
Results
Table 1 provides youth clinical characteristics at baseline. All youths were diagnosed with a primary anxiety disorder, with 56% of youths also meeting DSM-IV criteria for a secondary anxiety disorder. Although our inclusion criteria allowed for primary diagnosis of Separation, Social, and Generalized Anxiety Disorders, note that nearly the entire sample met for a primary diagnosis of either Social or Generalized Anxiety, with only one youth meeting for a primary diagnosis of Separation Anxiety
Discussion
This case series examined the value of developing attention modification as a treatment for youth anxiety. Despite the short treatment duration (twelve 15-min training sessions over the course of four weeks), youths in this clinical case series demonstrated significant symptomatic improvement from pre- to post-treatment, and 12 of 16 youths (75%) no longer met criteria for any anxiety disorder diagnosis at post-treatment. In addition, the four youths who still met DSM-IV criteria for an anxiety
Acknowledgements
Data collection for this project was supported, in part, by grants from the William T. Grant Foundation and the San Diego State University Minority Research Infrastructure Support Program (SDSU MRISP) to V. Robin Weersing.
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