Promoting walking as an adjunct intervention to group cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders—A pilot group randomized trial
Section snippets
Background
Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions in most developed countries with a yearly prevalence, all diagnosis combined, as high as 17% in the US (Kessler et al., 1994) or 10% in Australia (Andrews & Hall, 1999) and an estimated lifetime prevalence of 28.8% (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, Jin, & Walters, 2005). Anxiety disorders are recurrent with an increased risk of co-morbid depressive and addictive disorders developing if they remain untreated.
Despite existing
Study design and participants
A group randomized trial was conducted from January 2004 to mid-May 2005. Participants were recruited from a free-of-charge outpatient anxiety clinic located in South Western Sydney. In the usual clinic procedures, referred clients were assessed for the presence, duration, and severity of any anxiety disorders using the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV (First, Spitzer, Gibbon, & Williams, 1997) by a psychologist trained in the use of this measure and other tools to assess co-morbid
Results
During the study period, 85 clients who were eligible for the study (Fig. 1) formed 11 groups: 6 were randomly allocated to GCBT + EX (n = 45) and 5 to receive GCBT + ED (n = 40), but only 84% of the GCBT + EX (n = 38) and 90% of the GCBT + ED (n = 36) started the treatment (i.e., attended first or second treatment meeting).
Table 1 presents the sociodemographic characteristics of the two study groups and differences in DASS-21 scores and physical activity levels at baseline. No significant differences were
Discussion
This study examined the additional benefits of incorporating a home-based walking program regulated by pedometers as an adjunct to GCBT in a public clinic specialized in treating anxiety disorders. Findings suggest that improvement in mental health outcomes were greater among those receiving the intervention, but the effect differed by anxiety diagnoses. The added benefits of the intervention were most marked for clients with social phobia, with results for clients with panic disorder or
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the South West Sydney Area Health Research Fund and the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund. We thank the participants and staff of the anxiety clinic for their collaboration; Ajsa Mahmic for overseeing the study activities and providing administrative support; and Belinda von Hofe for overseeing the study exercise program.
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