Cognitive bias modification of interpretations: a viable treatment for child and adolescent anxiety?

Journal article

Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents are common and impairing. As many patients do not benefit from - or have difficulties accessing - frontline treatments, novel, effective and easy-to-deliver interventions are needed. Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) training has been used to treat adult anxiety disorders. CBM-I methods train individuals to endorse benign rather than negative resolutions of ambiguous cues. Developmental extensions of CBM-I are important for several reasons. First, implementing CBM-I in symptomatic children and adolescents may facilitate early preventative gains. Second, as training uses simple learning mechanisms, CBM-I may reflect a developmentally-suitable strategy for shaping adaptive processing styles. Third, as this age range involves protracted neurocognitive maturation and associated plasticity, administering CBM-I early could drive powerful, long-lasting benefits for emotional development. Finally, data from CBM-I studies could inform the cognitive mechanisms involved in the genesis of early-emerging anxiety. This paper provides the first organised review of CBM-I studies conducted in children and adolescents, and contains suggestions for future research that may help realise the therapeutic potential of early CBM-I interventions.

Authors: Lau, J

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Behaviour research and therapy
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 614-622
• Publication date: 2013-10-01
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2013.07.001
• EISSN: 1873-622X
• ISSN: 0005-7967
• Language: English
• Keywords: Anxiety; Humans; Adolescent Behavior; Child Behavior Disorders; Child; Adolescent; Cognitive Therapy