[The Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Medication, or Combined Treatment For Child Hood Anxiety Disorders].

Objective: The aims of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of the Fear Hunter cognitive behavioral therapy program, which was developed for the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders, and to compare its effectiveness with standard medication treatment.

Method: A total of 46 participants (aged 8 to 12) that applied to the Ege University, Faculty of Medicine, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry clinic and had a diagnosis of anxiety disorder were recruited for the study. The participants were randomly assigned to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), standard drug treatment (ST), or combined treatment (CBT+ ST) groups according to the order of application. Subjects were evaluated using pretest, posttest and 3 months follow-up measurements. The participants were assessed by the researcher using The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), The Children's Negative Cognitive Errors Questionnaire (CNCEQ), Health Related Quality of Life in Children (Kid-KINDL), and Children's Depression Inventory (CDI).

Results: The results of repeated measures ANOVA showed that, although general anxiety scores of all treatment conditions significantly decreased at posttest and follow up, a combination of two therapies (CBT+ST) had a significantly superior response rate. Moreover, all treatment conditions including CBT (CBT+ST and CBT) were superior to ST in terms of negative cognitive errors, quality of life, and depression.

Conclusion: It is thought that The Fear Hunter Therapy Program is an effective treatment technique because; it provides significant improvement in the primary and secondary symptoms (e.g. quality of life, depression, negative automatic thoughts) of childhood anxiety disorders.