Adolescent Anxiety Sensitivity Amelioration Program: Effects on Anxiety-Relevant Factors at 1-Month Follow-up

Introduction: Anxiety disorders are among the most common classes of psychopathology among youth, with nearly a quarter of adolescents meeting 12-month diagnostic criteria (Kessler et al., 2012). They negatively impact functioning (e.g., school performance) and physical health, as well as increase risk for other psychopathology (Mychailyszyn et al., 2010). These data underscore the importance of developing evidence-based strategies for preventing anxiety development among youth. The current study, therefore, tests the merit of a brief psychosocial intervention aimed at reducing vulnerability among at-risk adolescents. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), a malleable vulnerability factor (Schmidt et al., 2007), was selected as the intervention target because it can be conceptualized as a “broad-based” risk factor with relevance to panic and other types of anxiety (e.g., generalized anxiety disorder; Naragon-Gainey, 2010). Thus, consistent with recommendations to target factors that cut across disorders (O’Connell, Boat, & Warner, 2009), the current study was designed to evaluate the impact of the selective preventive intervention on changes in AS and symptoms of panic and generalized anxiety.

Method: Forty youth (aged 10-14 years) from the local community evidencing elevated levels of AS and a parent were randomly assigned to either the Adolescent Anxiety Sensitivity Amelioration Program (AASAP), which consists of a single 50min session of psychoeducation and experimenter-led interoceptive exposure, or a general health information control condition. One-month effects of the AASAP were evaluated, including effects on self-reported AS (Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index; Silverman et al., 1991) as well as panic and generalized anxiety symptoms (Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale; Chorpita et al., 2000).

Results: Analyses of covariance were used to investigate the effect of treatment condition on levels of AS, panic symptoms, and generalized anxiety symptoms at the one-month follow-up, controlling for baseline levels. Adolescents in the AASAP condition evidenced significantly lower generalized anxiety symptoms as compared to adolescents in the control condition (F(1, 37) = 7.75, p = .008). However, while trending in the hypothesized directions, adolescents in the AASAP condition did not report significantly lower AS (F(1, 37) = 3.90, p = .056) or panic symptoms (F(1, 36) = 2.99, p = .092) compared to adolescents in the control condition.

Conclusions. Findings will be discussed in terms of the development of the specified psychosocial intervention program for adolescents targeting empirically supported processes with relevance to multiple anxiety-relevant conditions. As data collection is ongoing, the observed trends will also be discussed.