Intensive cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders in adolescents: a case study
Date
2022-08-23
Authors
Version
First author draft
OA Version
Citation
Hudson, K., Fenley, A. R., Pincus, D. B., & Leyfer, O. (2023). Intensive Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders in Adolescents: A Case Study. Clinical Case Studies, 22(2), 99–119. https://doi.org/10.1177/15346501221113523
Abstract
Anxiety disorders are one of the most common psychiatric conditions in youth and can contribute
to impairment in social, academic, and family functioning. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has
been shown to be efficacious in treating youth anxiety disorders; however, for a multitude of
reasons, fewer than 20% of adolescents with anxiety disorders receive services for anxiety-related
problems. Intensive treatments, which rely on the same traditional components of CBT but are
delivered over a shorter period of time or in a fewer number of sessions, may be particularly
helpful for anxiety disorders and can offer a number of advantages over standard CBT. Despite
emerging evidence supporting the advantages of the intensive approach, there are few established
intensive treatment programs for youth with anxiety disorders. Further, no treatment to date has
comprehensively targeted the entire spectrum of comorbid adolescent anxiety disorders in a
combined intensive and transdiagnostic format, even though non-intensive (i.e., weekly delivered)
CBT has been tested using a transdiagnostic approach. We developed an intensive, six-session
intervention based on Angelosante and colleagues’ 2009 The Adolescent Panic Control Treatment
with In-Vivo Exposures (Angelosante et al., 2009) and other empirically-supported treatments for
youth to target all anxiety disorders in adolescents. We present a case study on an adolescent with
multiple comorbid anxiety and related disorders who received intensive CBT treatment as a way
to illustrate the clinical benefit and utility of an intensive, transdiagnostic approach. Findings
support the acceptability and feasibility of transdiagnostic treatment of youth anxiety.
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© The Author(s) 2022