Group and Individual Cognitive-Behavioral Treatments for Youth With Anxiety Disorders: 1-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

This study reports the 1-year follow-up of a cognitive-behavioral treatment for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Thirty-seven anxiety-disordered youth (aged 8–14 years at the time of treatment) were randomly assigned to individual cognitive-behavioral treatment (ICBT), group cognitive-behavioral treatment (GCBT), or a waitlist control (WLC) condition. Previously reported posttreatment results demonstrated significant reductions in anxiety whereas children in the WLC failed to demonstrate changes in report of anxiety or in diagnostic status. At the present 1-year follow-up, 81% of ICBT and 77% of GCBT children no longer met criteria for their primary anxiety disorder. Multivariate analyses of variance demonstrated maintenance of treatment gains for both ICBT and CGBT but failed to reveal differences between the conditions. Results not only suggest the nondifferential efficacy of individual and group cognitive-behavioral treatments for anxiety-disordered children but also add to the evidence suggesting GCBT as a “probably efficacious treatment.”