Anxious Children and Adolescents Non-responding to CBT: Clinical Predictors and Families' Experiences of Therapy.

Abstract

Youths with an anxiety disorder, who had a primary social phobia diagnosis and those, who had a comorbid mood disorder, were more likely not to respond to manualized group CBT. Parents of those non-responding youths often considered them as motivated to overcome their difficulties, but due to their symptomatology, they were unreceptive, reluctant and ambivalent and therefore not actively involved in therapy. The non-responding youths with social phobia felt evaluated and nervous of what others thought of them in the group. The parents of the non-responding youths with a comorbid mood disorder felt the group format placed restraints on therapists' ability to focus on their individual needs.