Group cognitive behavioural treatment of youth anxiety in community based clinical practice: Clinical significance and benchmarking against efficacy. (October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jónsson, H.; Thastum, M.; Arendt, K.; Juul-Sørensen, M.
• Is Part Of: Journal of anxiety disorders. Volume 35(2015:Oct.)
• Page Start: 9
• Page End: 18
• Publication Date: 2015-10
• Subjects: Youth anxiety -- Cognitive behaviour therapy -- Group therapy -- Effectiveness; CS Community sample -- US University sample -- SCC School counselling centre -- CAPC Children and adolescent psychiatric centre; Anxiety -- Periodicals; Anxiety Disorders -- Periodicals; Angoisse -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 616.8522
• DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.06.009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0887-6185

Abstract

Highlights: Group CBT for youths with anxiety disorders is effective within community based clinical practice. The treatment may lose some of its efficacy when disseminated from a university setting to the community. A considerable discrepancy was found between clinical ratings and self-report measures of youth anxiety. Abstract: The efficacy of a group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme (Cool Kids) of youth anxiety has been demonstrated at university clinics in Australia and Denmark and similar CBT programmes have been found effective within community settings in other countries. However, most effectiveness studies of CBT for youth anxiety have either used a mixture of CBT guidelines, or translated protocols not previous tested in an efficacy trial. This study used a benchmarking strategy to compare outcomes from the same CBT programme used at a university research clinic ( N = 87) and community centres ( N = 82). There was a significant reduction on both clinical and self-report measures of youth anxiety over time with medium to large effect sizes within both samples. Treatment effects on self-report measures of youth anxiety were significantly larger within the university sample, while changes in clinical measures of youth anxiety were similar in the two samples. Overall these findings suggest that an efficacious CBT group treatment programme developed within research contexts is transportable to community centres. Despite being effective within the community, the results indicate that the treatment may lose some of its efficacy when disseminated to the community.