Transdiagnostic Treatment for Anxiety Disorders in Two Cities of México
Condition: Anxiety Disorders
MeSH terms: Anxiety Disorders
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study evaluates the effectiveness of The Unified Transdiagnostic Protocol, a
      psychological treatment for the intervention of a broad range of anxiety disorders. It is
      compared the effectiveness of the treatment with the changes of the same participants before
      and after the treatment and a control group. The changes are being assessed through
      subjective measures such as psychometrics and objective measures such as
      Electroencelophalography.
    

Detailed description: 
      Anxiety disorders are among the highest prevalence of disorders in the general population
      worldwide, however, in the last decades they were treated by separate.

      However, it has been proposed that several emotional disorders have a common root and can be
      treated similarly. This is called the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of
      Emotional Disorders. The treatment has as objective to be implemented from 11 to 17 sessions,
      with 8 modules. This treatment can be applied to a bigger range of disorders, not only
      anxiety disorder, however, the objective of this study is to focus on the most urgent
      disorders in the border of Mexico and USA, that are anxiety disorders. According to the
      available scientific literature, this is the first time that this study has been applied in
      Mexican population. This study will have an intervention group that will receive the
      transdiagnostic treatment, and a control group that will be in a waiting list, and after the
      waiting list and the measured took place these patients will also receive the treatment. In
      both conditions the participants will be measured pre and post. The subjective measures will
      include the following psychometrics:

        1. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Symptom Scale (PSS).

        2. Interview Program for Anxiety Disorders.

        3. Beck Depression Inventory.

        4. State Trait Anxiety Inventory.

        5. Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale .

        6. Big Five Inventory.

        7. Scale of Beck's Suicidal Ideation.

        8. Yale-BrownObsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS)

      Also it is planned to measure the brain activity through an electroencephalogram,
      specifically the Gamma rhythm. It has been observed that when patients with General Anxiety
      disorder are emotionally aroused their Gamma rhythm increases. Part of the objectives of this
      study is to replicate the procedure by Oathes et al., that consist in measuring the brain
      activity of the participants with an electroencephalogram of 17 channels, following these
      steps: 2 minutes' base line, 5 minute relaxation and 5 minutes emotionally aroused, in their
      study it was observed in the patients that the Gamma rhythm was lower in the relaxation
      phase, increasing at the base line and having the highest record in the emotionally aroused
      minutes. To perform this measure, it will be used the EMOTIVE EPOC + of 14 channels is
      non-invasive, painless, low cost method Used for scientific research. The 14 channels with
      which the device counts. It allows to measure the cerebral areas AF3, F7, F3, FC5, T7, P7,
      O1, O2, P8, T8, FC6, F4, F8, AF4, based on the international system 10-20.
    

Intervention name(s): Transdiagnostic Treatment
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The Unified Transdiagnostic Protocol (PUT) is a cognitive-behavioral treatment focused on emotions. "The PUT was developed to be applicable to anxiety disorders, mood disorders, as well as other disorders in which anxiety and emotional dysregulation play an important role, such as many somatoform and dissociative disorders".
The PUT proposal includes 8 modules, of which 5 are nuclear, it is recommended to give these modules between 11 to 17 sessions with a duration of one hour each.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: The study has two arms, one is the intervention group that receive the treatment and the other is the control group that does not receive treatment, just waiting list, however at the end of the assesment the participants in the control group will also receive the treatment. The patients in both groups will be evaluated pre and post treatment. 11 sessions, once per week, therefore 3 months apart.
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: General Anxiety Disorder; Social Anxiety Disorder; Specific Phobia; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; posttraumatic stress disorder