A preliminary examination of the effects of transdiagnostic versus single diagnosis protocols on anger during the treatment of anxiety disorders

Abstract

Dysregulated anger is often present in the emotional (i.e., anxiety, mood, and related) disorders, however it is rarely targeted in treatment. Transdiagnostic treatments, which focus on processes that contribute to dysregulated emotions across the range of psychopathology, might represent an efficient way to treat this anger. Using a subset of data from a recently completed equivalency trial comparing the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP) to single diagnosis protocols (SDPs) for specific disorders, this study began exploring whether the UP led to great reductions in anger compared to the SDPs. Results indicated that there was a small, non-significant, decrease in anger in the UP condition, whereas there was a moderate, non-significant increase in anger in the SDP condition. At post treatment, UP patients had significantly lower anger scores than patients who received a SDP. These preliminary results suggest that transdiagnostic treatments may be well poised to target dyregulated anger in the context of emotional disorders.