JANICE WOOD Associate News Editor, Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on June 29, 2012
A University of Houston researcher has found that patients suffering from anxiety disorders showed the most improvement when treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) — in conjunction with a “transdiagnostic” approach, which allows therapists to use one kind of treatment no matter what the anxiety.
The problem up to now, according to Peter Norton, Ph.D., an associate professor in clinical psychology and director of the Anxiety Disorder Clinic at the University of Houston, has been that each anxiety disorder — such as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) social anxiety disorder, and phobias — has had a targeted treatment.
The transdiagnostic approach recognizes that many overlapping dimensions exist among these anxiety disorders….