Anxiety Disorders Research Program

We actively research both basic and applied topics in relation to acceptance and mindfulness based change processes with a particular emphasis on anxiety disorders. Listed below are the current and recently completed projects at the ADRP.

With this project we adapted a novel assessment methodology in order to get more accurate base rates of behavioral health concerns in returning service members and veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Results will be posted on the study website, www.soldiertosoldier.net, soon.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has proven to be an efficacious treatment for panic disorder. However, significant proportions of patients fail to achieve clinically significant improvement. Acceptance, an alternative contextually-focused approach to content- and change-based cognitive strategies, has gained popularity within the field. Research on the utility of acceptance-based strategies for anxiety is promising, particularly in comparison to control-based emotion regulation strategies, such as suppression and distraction, yet, to date no studies have rigorously compared acceptance-based strategies to analogs of cognitive behavioral techniques. The present study was the first to rigorously investigate the relative utility of acceptance and cognitive restructuring strategies for coping with acute panicogenic distress. Research compared the psychophysiological (i.e., skin conductance) and subjective self-report indices of panic severity, distress, and symptomatology for the different strategy groups (acceptance, cognitive restructuring, and no provided strategy) as well as behavioral avoidance in a randomized sample of high anxiety sensitive undergraduate females undergoing a carbon dioxide-enriched air biological challenge.

There are more than a dozen self-help workbooks based upon Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (or ACT, said as one word) that are available to the general public, and yet there are no good evaluations of whether such books are actually helpful for the alleviation of human suffering. The purpose of this international study was to examine the effectiveness of a new self-help workbook based upon ACT, The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety, for people who are suffering from anxiety and see their anxiety as a significant problem in their lives. Initial exploration of the data indicates promising outcomes as the final post-treatment scores are collected.

CBT approaches are currently the most empirically supported clinical interventions for anxiety disorders and thus provide a rigorous comparison method against which to test an ACT intervention. Building upon the favorable data emerging from our ACT Self-Help Workbook Study, we examined the effectiveness of The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety relative to an existing CBT workbook in the alleviation of anxious suffering and improvement in quality of life in individuals suffering from anxiety disorders. A second purpose of the study was to explore whether ACT and CBT workbooks produce clinical change via similar or unique processes, while elucidating for whom such treatments may be appropriate.