Author interview: the role of cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents

In this short interview, Postdoctoral Researcher and lead author Tessa Reardon tells us about thisrecently published review.  What does this Cochrane review tell us about the role of cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents?Our review shows the key role cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) plays in the treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. CBT is the most frequently evaluated treatment for these disorders. Indeed, this review includes 88 studies which is more than twice as many studies as the previous Cochrane review on this topic. Encouragingly, our findings reinforce previous conclusions that CBT is more effective than no treatment for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. We didn ’t find evidence that CBT is superior to alternative treatments, but few studies have compared CBT to alternative treatments so we are still not sure about this. The review also tells us most about the short-term benefits of CBT, and we still know relatively little about the extent to which these benefits continue in the medium to longer term. What can CBT practitioners take from this evidence?CBT practitioners can be reassured by the evidence of an advantage of CBT compared to waiting lists and no treatment. CBT can be provided in a range of different ways, for example, practitioners can work one-to-one with children, deliver group sessions, work with parents, deliver brief or longer treatments. Importantly, we did not fi...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: news