Efficacy of applied relaxation and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder

In the citing paper

“Borkovec and Costello (1993) found that a reflective listening condition was significantly superior to cognitive therapy and SCD treatments on objectively coded ratings of depth of emotional processing (using the Experiencing Scale (Klein, Mathieu Coughlan, & Kiesler, 1986; Klein, Mathieu, Gendlin, & Kiesler, 1969), one of the most reliable methods of assessing change process in experiential ther”

In the citing paper

“Also, as noted earlier, depth of emotional processing in response to SCD was objectively coded as inferior to reflective listening (Borkovec & Costello, 1993), suggesting that SCD may not be optimal for emotional processing.”

In the citing paper

“For example, randomized controlled trials demonstrated that AR was more efficacious than a nondirective, reflective listening therapy (Borkovec & Costello, 1993) and roughly as efficacious as cognitive therapy (Arntz, 2003; Öst & Breitholtz, 2000), cognitive behavioral therapy (Borkovec & Costello, 1993; Dugas et al., 2010), and worry exposure (Hoyer et al., 2009) in treating GAD.”

In the citing paper

“For example, randomized controlled trials demonstrated that AR was more efficacious than a nondirective, reflective listening therapy (Borkovec & Costello, 1993) and roughly as efficacious as cognitive therapy (Arntz, 2003; Öst & Breitholtz, 2000), cognitive behavioral therapy (Borkovec & Costello, 1993; Dugas et al., 2010), and worry exposure (Hoyer et al., 2009) in treating GAD.”

In the citing paper

“Borkovec and Costello (1993) found 44% of individuals receiving AR met criteria for high end state functioning at post-treatment”

In the citing paper

“As a result, our AR outcomes were notably stronger than those found in previous trials.”

In the citing paper

“AR has been shown to be more effective than a nondirective therapy (Borkovec & Costello, 1993)”

In the citing paper

“AR is aimed at teaching clients to notice the earliest signs of anxiety and to react with a different response, namely relaxation, before the cycle of anxiety has a chance to strengthen.”

In the citing paper

“These responses are proposed to develop over time, with each channel amplifying the others, increasing the intensity of the anxious response.”

In the citing paper

“As described in Borkovec and Costello (1993), AR is based on the premise that anxiety involves an interacting system of cognitive, physiological, affective, and behavioral responses.”

In the citing paper

“The effect of AR on GAD symptoms in the current trial was larger than in previous trials (Borkovec & Costello, 1993; Wells et al., 2010), possibly due to the extended length of the treatment and/or the emphasis on recognizing tension and deploying relaxation skills in the moment.”

In the citing paper

“In looking at longer term follow-up, the Cuijpers et al. (2014) meta-analysis concluded that CBT may be effective and may be more effective than applied relaxation (AR) in the long-term based on the four studies reporting 12-month follow-up assessments (Barlow, Brown, & Rapee, 1992; Borkovec & Costello, 1993; Dugas et al., 2010; Öst & Breitholtz, 2000).”

In the citing paper

“The PSWQ has been reported to discriminate patients with GAD from community controls and patients with other anxiety disorders (Brown et al. 1992) and has demonstrated sensitivity to change across both 6-week and 12-week therapeutic interventions for GAD (Borkovec and Costello 1993).”

In the citing paper

“The CBT protocol utilized in this study is based on elements of prior CBT protocols for GAD in younger adults (Borkovec & Costello, 1993; Craske, Barlow, & O’Leary, 1992) and modified to include a flexible delivery format to meet the needs of older adults in primary care medical settings (Stanley, Diefenbach, & Hopko, 2004).”

In the citing paper

“As reflected in our results, high remission rates of anxiety symptoms in GAD were outlined following CBT interventions (Borkovec and Costello, 1993; Kim et al., 2009).”

In the citing paper

“Overall, the results show that CBT and AR were equivalent at posttreatment and that both conditions led to the maintenance of treatment gains, with some evidence of further gains in CBT.”

In the citing paper

“To our knowledge, Borkovec and Costello (1993) are the only researchers who have compared a GAD-specific form of cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT (based on the avoidance model of worry) to AR alone.”

In the citing paper

“Thus, only the Borkovec and Costello study allows for a direct comparison of GAD-specific CBT and AR.”

In the citing paper

“At the very least, the data suggest that AR leads to the maintenance of treatment gains following treatment, which is in line with previous clinical trials of AR for GAD (e.g., Arntz, 2003; Barlow et al., 1992; Borkovec & Costello, 1993; Öst & Breitholtz, 2000).”

In the citing paper

“These finding are somewhat at odds with those of Borkovec and Costello (1993), who found evidence for the superiority of CBT over AR at 12-month follow-up.”