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Efficacy of Attention Bias Training for Child Anxiety Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial

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Abstract

A growing evidence base supports attention bias modification (ABM) as a novel intervention for anxiety. However, research has been largely conducted with adults and analogue samples, leaving the impact of ABM for child anxiety be fully elucidated. Thus, we conducted a double-blind, randomized controlled trial testing ABM efficacy versus an attention control condition (CC) in 31 children diagnosed with anxiety disorder. Youth were assigned to 4 weeks of ABM where attention was trained away from threat, or a sham CC in which no bias training occurred. Findings indicate that significantly more youth in the ABM versus CC group were considered treatment responders post training. The ABM versus CC group also demonstrated a greater decrease in anxiety severity, with this difference being marginally significant. Findings lend support for the potential of ABM in reducing youth anxiety. Further work regarding mechanisms of action is warranted to advance ABM research.

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Notes

  1. When examining intent-to-treat analyses with last observation carried forward for PARS and assuming non-responder status for CGI-I, both group differences in CGI-I responder status [F(1, 30) = 3.91, p = .057] and PARS Group x Time interactions [F(1, 30) = 3.00, p = .093] were marginally significant.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants R01MH087623 (N.A.) and 1R34MH095885-01 (S.C.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Susanna W. Chang & John Piacentini

  2. Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego State University/University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Jennie M. Kuckertz, Arturo R. Carmona & Nader Amir

  3. Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Deepika Bose

  4. Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, rm 67-463, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA

    Susanna W. Chang

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  1. Susanna W. Chang
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  2. Jennie M. Kuckertz
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  3. Deepika Bose
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  4. Arturo R. Carmona
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  5. John Piacentini
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  6. Nader Amir
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Correspondence to Susanna W. Chang.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Amir was formerly a part owner of Cognitive Retraining Technologies, LLC (CRT), a company that marketed computer-based anxiety relief products similar to those studied here. Dr. Amir’s ownership interest in CRT was extinguished on January 29, 2016, when CRT was acquired by another entity. Dr. Amir has an interest in royalty income generated by the marketing of anxiety relief products by this entity. All other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Furthermore, informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Chang, S.W., Kuckertz, J.M., Bose, D. et al. Efficacy of Attention Bias Training for Child Anxiety Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 50, 198–208 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-018-0832-6

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