Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review.

Syndromal classification is a well-developed diagnostic system but has failed to deliver on its promise of the identification of functional pathological processes. Functional analysis is tightly connected to treatment but has failed to develop testable. replicable classification systems. Functional diagnostic dimensions are suggested as a way to develop the functional classification approach, and experiential avoidance is described as 1 such dimension. A wide range of research is reviewed showing that many forms of psychopathology can be conceptualized as unhealthy efforts to escape and avoid emotions, thoughts, memories, and other private experiences. It is argued that experiential avoidance, as a functional diagnostic dimension, has the potential to integrate the efforts and findings of researchers from a wide variety of theoretical paradigms, research interests, and clinical domains and to lead to testable new approaches to the analysis and treatment of behavioral disorders.

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Experiential avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment.

Objective: This study was designed to determine the effectiveness ofa group stress reduction program based on mindfulness meditation for patients with anxiety disorders. Method: The 22 study participants were screened with a structured clinical interview and found to meet the DSM-IH-R criteria for generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. Assessments, including self-ratings and therapists’ ratings, were obtained weekly bef ore and during the meditation-based stress reduction and relaxation program and monthly during the 3-month follow-up period. Results: Repeated measures analyses ofvariance documented significant reductions in anxiety and depression scores after treatment for 20 of the subjects-changes that were maintained at follow-up. The number of subjects experiencing panic symptoms was also substantially reduced. A comparison of the study subjects with a group ofnonstudy participants in the program who met the initial screening criteria for entry into the study showed that both groups achieved similiar reductions in anxiety scores on the SCL-90-R and on the Medical Symptom Checklist, suggesting generalizability of the study f indings. Conclusions: A group mindfulness meditation training program can effectively reduce symptoms ofanxiety and panic and can help maintain these reductions in patients with

/pdf/effectiveness-of-a-meditation-based-stress-reduction-program-1v67vf87kk.pdf

Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Psychometric properties of the credibility/expectancy questionnaire.

Research on relationships between anxiety and depression has proceeded at a rapid pace since the 1980s. The similarities and differences between these two conditions, as well as many of the important features of the comorbidity of these disorders, are well understood. The genotypic structure of anxiety and depression is also fairly well documented. Generalized anxiety and major depression share a common genetic diathesis, but the anxiety disorders themselves are genetically hetergeneous. Sophisticated phenotypic models have also emerged, with data converging on an integrative hierarchical model of mood and anxiety disorders in which each individual syndrome contains both a common and a unique component. Finally, considerable progress has been made in understanding cognitive aspects of these disorders. This work has focused on both the cognitive content of anxiety and depression and on the effects that anxiety and depression have on information processing for mood-congruent material.

https://sites.oxy.edu/clint/physio/article/comorbidityofanxietyandunipolarmooddisorders.pdf

Comorbidity of anxiety and unipolar mood disorders

Behavioral treatment of panic disorder

The results of a clinical outcome study (N = 57) comparing behavior therapy directed at panic disorder (panic control treatment [PCT]) with alprazolam were reported. These conditions were compared with a medication placebo and a waiting-list control group. Patterns of results on measures of panic attacks, generalized anxiety, and global clinical ratings reveal that PCT was significantly more effective than placebo and waiting-list conditions on most measures. The alprazolam group differed significantly from neither PCT nor placebo. The percentage of clients completing the study who were free of panic attacks following PCT was 87%, compared with 50% for alprazolam, 36% for placebo, and 33% for the waiting-list group. Since alprazolam may work more quickly than PCT but may also interfere with the effects of behavioral treatment, these data suggest a series of studies on the feasibility of integrating these treatments and on the precise patterns and mechanisms of action of various successful treatment approaches to panic disorder.

A comparison of alprazolam and behavior therapy in treatment of panic disorder.

Panic and generalized anxiety disorders: Nature and treatment

This study examined the specificity to depression of the attributional style hypothesized by the reformulated model of learned helplessness. Scores on a modified version of the Attributional Style Questionnaire of patients with dysthymic disorder were compared with those of anxiety disorder patients (social phobic, agoraphobic, and panic disorder) and normal subjects. While dysthymic patients demonstrated more internal, global, and stable attributions for negative events than normals, they did not systematically differ from social phobic or agoraphobic subjects. All groups differed from all the other groups on the Beck Depression Inventory. Analysis of covariance that controlled for depression scores suggested that depression contributed substantially to attributional style, but anxiety disorder diagnosis also exerted a significant effect on some attributional measures. These findings are discussed in terms of their meaning for the reformulated model of learned helplessness and the role of attributional processes in anxiety disorders.

Janet S. Klosko

Papers

Behavioral treatment of panic disorder

A comparison of alprazolam and behavior therapy in treatment of panic disorder.

Panic and generalized anxiety disorders: Nature and treatment

Anxiety disorders, depression, and attributional style: A further test of the specificity of depressive attributions

A comparison of alprazolam and behavior therapy in treatment of panic disorder.