290 results match your criteria: "Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders[Affiliation]"

National trends in the antipsychotic treatment of psychiatric outpatients with anxiety disorders.

Am J Psychiatry

October 2011

Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Department of Psychology, Boston University, MA, USA.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine patterns and recent trends in the antipsychotic medication treatment of anxiety disorders among visits to office-based psychiatrists in the United States.

Method: Annual data from the 1996-2007 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey were analyzed to examine the patterns and trends in antipsychotic medication treatment within a nationally representative sample of 4,166 visits to office-based psychiatrists in which an anxiety disorder was diagnosed.

Results: Across the 12-year period, antipsychotic prescriptions in visits for anxiety disorders increased from 10.

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Representation of ideal figure size in Ebony magazine: a content analysis.

Body Image

September 2011

Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Department of Psychology, Boston University, 648 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, United States.

Studies examining trends over time in mainstream magazines observe decreases in women's figure size, and increases in figure exposure and amount of diet/exercise content. Little is known, however, regarding the content of African American magazines. Utilizing methods from classic studies, this investigation examined content in Ebony, a magazine with wide African American readership, from 1969 to 2008.

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The present study evaluated the temporal course of three dimensions of anxiety sensitivity (AS; concerns over physical symptoms, mental incapacitation, and social embarrassment) and their relationships with behavioral inhibition (BI) and depression (DEP) in 606 outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders. A semi-structured interview and self-report questionnaires were administered on three occasions over a two-year period. All three constructs decreased over the study period and AS temporally functioned more similar to DEP than BI.

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Anxiety and mood disorders are common, chronic, costly, and characterized by high comorbidity. The development of cognitive behavioral approaches to treating anxiety and mood disorders has left us with highly efficacious treatments that are increasingly widely accepted. The proliferation of treatment manuals targeting single disorders, sometimes with trivial differences among them, leaves the mental health professional with no clear way to choose one manual over another and little chance of ever becoming familiar with most of them, let alone trained to competence in their delivery.

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The effects of extraverted temperament on agoraphobia in panic disorder.

J Abnorm Psychol

May 2010

Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215-2013, USA.

Although situational avoidance is viewed as the most disabling aspect of panic disorder, few studies have evaluated how dimensions of neurotic (i.e., neuroticism, behavioral inhibition) and extraverted (i.

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Cortisol, stress, and attentional bias toward threat.

Anxiety Stress Coping

October 2010

Department of Psychology, Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.

Attentional bias toward threatening stimuli is a central characteristic of anxiety and acute stress. Recent small-scale studies have provided divergent perspectives on the association between the stress hormone cortisol and attentional bias toward threat cues. In a larger sample size than previous studies, we examined this association by investigating the impact of cortisol on attentional bias in two studies using a psychological stressor (N=35) and a physical stressor (N=65), respectively.

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Anxiety disorders in children with williams syndrome, their mothers, and their siblings: implications for the etiology of anxiety disorders.

J Neurodev Disord

March 2009

Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville (now at Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University).

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of anxiety disorders in children with Williams syndrome (WS), their sibling closest in age, and their mothers and to examine the predictors of anxiety in these groups.

Methods: The prevalence of anxiety disorders was assessed and compared to that in the general population.

Results: Children with WS had a significantly higher prevalence of specific phobia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and separation anxiety in comparison to children in the general population.

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Two studies present preliminary support for the Unified Protocol (UP), a transdiagnostic, emotion-focused cognitive-behavioral treatment developed to be applicable across the emotional disorders. Study 1 presents data from an open clinical trial of the initial version of the UP in a heterogeneous clinical sample, yielding large pre- to post-treatment effect sizes across disorders on measures of DSM-IV diagnostic category severity, and medium to large effect sizes on general measures of depression and anxiety, social adjustment, and levels of negative and positive affect. Following a period of further manual development resulting in specific modifications and enhancements to core treatment components, Study 2 presents data from an additional pilot study of this revised version of the UP.

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Negative effects from psychological treatments: a perspective.

Am Psychol

January 2010

Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, 648 Beacon Street, 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

The author offers a 40-year perspective on the observation and study of negative effects from psychotherapy or psychological treatments. This perspective is placed in the context of the enormous progress in refining methodologies for psychotherapy research over that period of time, resulting in the clear demonstration of positive effects from psychological treatments for many disorders and problems. The study of negative effects--whether due to techniques, client variables, therapist variables, or some combination of these--has not been accorded the same degree of attention.

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Differentiating generalized anxiety disorder from anxiety disorder not otherwise specified.

J Nerv Ment Dis

December 2009

Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

The diagnostic criteria for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have elicited numerous criticisms and suggestions for revision. Several researchers have noted that many patients fail to meet full criteria for the disorder, but nevertheless experience clinically significant symptoms. These "subsyndromal" cases are labeled anxiety disorder not otherwise specified (AnxNOS) under the current diagnostic system.

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Adolescent eating disorders: treatment and response in a naturalistic study.

J Clin Psychol

March 2010

Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

This naturalistic study investigated the treatment and outcome of adolescents with eating disorders (EDs) in the community. Clinicians from a practice-research network provided data on ED symptoms, global functioning, comorbidity, treatment, and outcome for 120 adolescents with EDs. ED "not otherwise specified" was the most common ED diagnosed.

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Background: Traditional combination strategies of cognitive-behavior therapy plus pharmacotherapy have met with disappointing results for anxiety disorders. Enhancement of cognitive-behavior therapy with d-cycloserine (DCS) pharmacotherapy represents a novel strategy for improving therapeutic learning from cognitive-behavior therapy that remains untested in panic disorder.

Method: This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled augmentation trial examining the addition of isolated doses of 50 mg d-cycloserine or pill placebo to brief exposure-based cognitive-behavior therapy.

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Generalized anxiety disorder within the course of major depressive disorder: examining the utility of the DSM-IV hierarchy rule.

Depress Anxiety

January 2010

Department of Clinical Psychology, Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, 648 Beacon Street, 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

Background: The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) specifies that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) should not be diagnosed if it occurs exclusively during an episode of a major depressive disorder (MDD) or another mood disorder. This hierarchy rule was intended to promote diagnostic parsimony, but may result in the loss of important clinical information. The goal of this study was to compare individuals with MDD, comorbid MDD and GAD, and GAD within the course of MDD at intake and 12-month follow-up on self-report measures, clinician ratings, and rates of comorbidity.

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A wealth of evidence attests to the extensive current and lifetime diagnostic comorbidity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., DSM-IV) anxiety and mood disorders. Research has shown that the considerable cross-sectional covariation of DSM-IV emotional disorders is accounted for by common higher order dimensions such as neuroticism/behavioral inhibition (N/BI) and low positive affect/behavioral activation.

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Despite increasing clinical and empirical attention, the construct validity of acceptance has not been extensively investigated. The present study utilized a multitrait-multimethod design and a correlated trait-correlated method minus one [CT-C(M-1)] confirmatory factor analytic model to assess acceptance's convergent validity across methods and discriminant validity in comparison to cognitive reappraisal and perceived emotional control in a sample of 210 outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders. In addition, the study evaluated acceptance's concurrent validity by investigating the extent to which it was associated with variables of clinical interest over and above the two rival constructs.

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Impulsivity and personality variables in adolescents with eating disorders.

J Nerv Ment Dis

April 2009

Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.

Impulsivity among individuals with eating disorders (EDs) is associated with severe comorbidities and poor treatment outcome. However, research investigating the construct of impulsivity in EDs is limited. The objectives of the present study were to characterize multiple dimensions of impulsivity in adolescents with EDs; determine if differences in impulsivity were associated with ED diagnosis and/or broader personality traits; and explore the relationship between impulsivity and etiologically significant variables.

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A self-report measure of metacognition for both children and adolescents (ages 7-17) (Metacognitions Questionnaire for Children; MCQ-C) was adapted from a previous measure, the MCQ-A (Metacognitions Questionnaire for Adolescents) and was administered to a sample of 78 children and adolescents with clinical anxiety disorders and 20 non-clinical youth. The metacognitive processes included were (1) positive beliefs about worry (positive meta-worry); (2) negative beliefs about worry (negative meta-worry); (3) superstitious, punishment and responsibility beliefs (SPR beliefs) and (4) cognitive monitoring (awareness of one's own thoughts). The MCQ-C demonstrated good internal-consistency reliability, as well as concurrent and criterion validity, and four valid factors.

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Autism and specific language impairment (SLI) are developmental disorders that, although distinct by definition, have in common some features of both language and social behavior. The goal of this study was to further explore the extent to which specific clinical features of autism are seen in SLI. The children with the two disorders, matched for non-verbal IQ, were compared on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS).

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This investigation seeks to establish the psychometric properties of an adapted measure of experiential avoidance (EA) in the parenting context by assessing its relation to other parenting constructs and psychosocial correlates of child anxiety in a clinical sample. Participants were 154 children (90 female, 64 male) diagnosed with anxiety disorders and their parents (148 mothers, 119 fathers). The newly developed Parental Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (PAAQ) was administered to parents along with self-report measures of adult experiential avoidance, parental psychopathology, affective expression, and parental control behaviors.

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Countertransference reactions to adolescents with eating disorders: relationships to clinician and patient factors.

Int J Eat Disord

September 2009

Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Department of Psychology, Boston University, 648 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

Objective: Clinical report suggests that therapists have strong and sometimes difficult-to-manage reactions to patients with eating disorders (EDs); however, systematic research is largely absent. The purpose of this study was to explore the emotional responses, or countertransference (CT) reactions, clinicians experience when working with patients with EDs, and to identify clinician, patient, and therapy variables associated with these responses.

Method: One hundred twenty clinicians reported on multiple variables related to an adolescent female patient they were treating for an ED.

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Most psychological scientists make inferences about the relations among variables of interest by comparing aggregated data from groups of individuals. Although this method is unarguably a useful one that will continue to yield scientific advances, important limitations exist regarding the efficiency and flexibility of such designs, as well as with the generality of obtained results. Idiographic research strategies, which focus on the intensive study of individual organisms over time, offer a proficient and flexible alternative to group comparison designs; however, they are rarely taught in graduate training programs and are seldom used by psychological scientists.

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Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce has demonstrated that compared with offspring of nondivorced parents, those of divorced parents generally have more negative attitudes toward marriage as an institution and are less optimistic about the feasibility of a long-lasting, healthy marriage. It is also possible that when entering marriage themselves, adults whose parents divorced have less personal relationship commitment to their own marriages and less confidence in their own ability to maintain a happy marriage with their spouse. However, this prediction has not been tested.

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This report presents results of a treatment for panic disorder with moderate to severe agoraphobia (PDA-MS) called sensation-focused intensive treatment (SFIT). SFIT is an 8-day intensive treatment that combines features of cognitive- behavioral treatment for panic disorder, such as interoceptive exposure and cognitive restructuring with ungraded situational exposure. SFIT focuses on feared physical sensations as well as agoraphobic avoidance.

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Objective: Despite significant advances in psychosocial treatments for substance use disorders, the relative success of these approaches has not been well documented. In this meta-analysis, the authors provide effect sizes for various types of psychosocial treatments, as well as abstinence and treatment-retention rates for cannabis, cocaine, opiate, and polysubstance abuse and dependence treatment trials.

Method: With a comprehensive series of literature searches, the authors identified a total of 34 well-controlled treatment conditions-five for cannabis, nine for cocaine, seven for opiate, and 13 for polysubstance users-representing the treatment of 2,340 patients.

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