A randomized controlled trial of emotion regulation therapy for generalized anxiety disorder with and without co-occurring depression.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depression (MDD), especially when they co-occur, are associated with suboptimal treatment response. One common feature of these disorders is negative self-referential processing (NSRP; i.e., worry, rumination), which worsens treatment outcome. Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) integrates principles from affect science with traditional and contemporary cognitive-behavioral treatments to identify and modify the functional nature of NSRP by targeting motivational and regulatory mechanisms, as well as behavioral consequences. Building on encouraging open trial findings, 53 patients with a primary diagnosis of GAD (43% with comorbid MDD) were randomly assigned to immediate treatment with ERT (n = 28) or a modified attention control condition (MAC, n = 25). ERT patients, as compared with MAC patients, evidenced statistically and clinically meaningful improvement on clinical indicators of GAD and MDD, worry, rumination, comorbid disorder severity, functional impairment, quality of life, as well as hypothesized mechanisms reflecting mindful attentional, metacognitive, and overall emotion regulation, which all demonstrated mediation of primary outcomes. This superiority of ERT exceeded medium effect sizes with most outcomes surpassing conventions for a large effect. Treatment effects were maintained for nine months following the end of acute treatment. Overall, ERT resulted in high rates of high endstate functioning for both GAD and MDD that were maintained into the follow-up period. Findings provide encouraging support for the efficacy and hypothesized mechanisms underlying ERT and point to fruitful directions for improving our understanding and treatment of complex clinical conditions such as GAD with co-occurring MDD. (PsycINFO Database Record

Mennin DS ，Fresco DM ，O'Toole MS ，Heimberg RG ... -  《-》

AN OPEN TRIAL OF EMOTION REGULATION THERAPY FOR GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER AND COOCCURRING DEPRESSION.

Although CBT is efficacious for a wide variety of psychiatric conditions, relatively fewer GAD patients achieve high endstate functioning as compared to patients receiving CBTs for other disorders. Moreover, GAD trials that utilized patient samples without prominent depression have tended to report that effect sizes for depressive outcomes were small or diminished to pretreatment levels in the follow-up period. Emotion regulation therapy (ERT) integrates principles from traditional and contemporary cognitive behavioral treatments with basic and translational findings from affect science to offer a blueprint for improving intervention by focusing on motivational, regulatory, and contextual learning mechanisms. The purpose of this investigation was to provide initial support for the efficacy of ERT in an open trial of patients with GAD and cooccurring depressive symptoms. Twenty-one patients received a 20-session version of ERT delivered in weekly individual sessions. Standardized clinician ratings and self-report measures were assessed at pre-, mid-, and posttreatment as well as at three- and nine-month follow-ups. Intent-to-treat analyzes were utilized. GAD patients, half with comorbid major depression, evidenced statistically, and clinically meaningful improvements in symptom severity, impairment, quality of life, and in model-related outcomes including emotional/motivational intensity, mindful attending/acceptance, decentering, and cognitive reappraisal. Patients maintained gains across the three and nine month follow-up periods. These findings, although preliminary, provide additional evidence for the role of emotion dysregulation in the onset, maintenance, and now treatment of conditions such as GAD and cooccurring depressive symptoms.

Mennin DS ，Fresco DM ，Ritter M ，Heimberg RG ... -  《-》

Changes in Decentering and Reappraisal Temporally Precede Symptom Reduction During Emotion Regulation Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder With and Without Co-Occurring Depression.

Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) has demonstrated efficacy in both open and randomized trials for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) with and without co-occurring depression. An important goal in ERT is to teach clients adaptive emotion regulation, including healthier metacognitive abilities such as decentering and cognitive reappraisal. A few studies thus far have demonstrated a mediating role for these metacognitive abilities in other cognitive behavioral therapies (CBTs) for GAD. However, a drawback to most of these has been the ability to demonstrate a causal role for improved metacognitive abilities in outcome. In the present study, we utilized multilevel time-lagged segment analyses to explore the temporal dynamics between session-by-session changes in metacognition and anxiety outcomes from ERT. Thirty-one young adults diagnosed with GAD with and without co-occurring depression received 16 sessions of ERT. Prior to each session, participants completed questionnaires pertaining to metacognition (i.e., decentering and cognitive reappraisal) and anxiety symptoms (i.e., worry, trait anxiousness, and generalized anxiety). Changes in decentering temporally preceded changes in worry and trait anxiousness of a medium to large magnitude, and changes in cognitive reappraisal temporally preceded changes in all three outcomes of a medium to large magnitude. The reverse direction, where mediators were predicted by outcomes, was nonsignificant. These findings support the notion that adaptive metacognitive emotion regulation is involved in reducing worry and anxiety in GAD. Having a clearer understanding of the temporal dynamics between metacognitive abilities and symptoms of anxiety can inform and improve not only ERT but other CBTs for GAD, as well.

O'Toole MS ，Renna ME ，Mennin DS ，Fresco DM ... -  《-》

A Pilot Study of Emotion Regulation Therapy for Generalized Anxiety and Depression: Findings From a Diverse Sample of Young Adults.

Emotion regulation therapy (ERT) for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and accompanying major depressive disorder (MDD) is a theoretically derived, evidence-based treatment that integrates principles from traditional and contemporary cognitive-behavioral and experiential approaches with basic and translational findings from affect science to offer a blueprint for improving intervention by focusing on the motivational responses and corresponding self-referential regulatory characteristics. Preliminary evidence supports the efficacy of a 20-session version of ERT. However, previous trials of ERT and other traditional and contemporary cognitive-behavioral therapies have often utilized relatively homogeneous samples. Various contextual and demographic factors may be associated with challenges that increase risk for negative mental and social outcomes for young adults ages 18-29, particularly for individuals from diverse backgrounds. The aim of this pilot study was to examine the effectiveness of a briefer 16-session version of ERT in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of young adults. Participants (N = 31) were enrolled at an urban-based, commuter college who consented to treatment for anxiety, worry, or depression at an on-campus counseling center. Open-trial results demonstrate strong ameliorative changes in worry, rumination, self-reported and clinician-rated GAD and MDD severity, social disability, quality of life, attentional flexibility, decentering/distancing, reappraisal, trait mindfulness, and negative emotionality from pre- to posttreatment. These gains were maintained throughout a 3- and 9-month follow-up. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the efficacy of ERT in treating a racially and ethnically heterogeneous population. Further, this study highlights comparable effectiveness of a briefer 16-session version of ERT.

Renna ME ，Quintero JM ，Soffer A ，Pino M ，Ader L ，Fresco DM ，Mennin DS ... -  《-》

A randomized, controlled clinical trial: the effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on generalized anxiety disorder among Chinese community patients: protocol for a randomized trial.

Wong SY ，Mak WW ，Cheung EY ，Ling CY ，Lui WW ，Tang WK ，Wong RL ，Lo HH ，Mercer S ，Ma HS ... -  《BMC Psychiatry》