title: Attention bias modification treatment: a meta-analysis toward the establishment of novel treatment for anxiety.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Attention Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT) is a newly emerging, promising treatment for anxiety disorders. Although recent randomized control trials (RCTs) suggest that ABMT reduces anxiety, therapeutic effects have not been summarized quantitatively.
  
  
  METHODS
  Standard meta-analytic procedures were used to summarize the effect of ABMT on anxiety. With MEDLINE, January 1995 to February 2010, we identified RCTs comparing the effects on anxiety of ABMT and quantified effect sizes with Hedge's d.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twelve studies met inclusion criteria, including 467 participants from 10 publications. Attention Bias Modification Treatment produced significantly greater reductions in anxiety than control training, with a medium effect (d = .51 [corrected] (p < .001). Age and gender did not moderate the effect of ABMT on anxiety, whereas several characteristics of the ABMT training did.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Attention Bias Modification Treatment shows promise as a novel treatment for anxiety. Additional RCTs are needed to fully evaluate the degree to which these findings replicate and apply to patients. Future work should consider the precise role for ABMT in the broader anxiety-disorder therapeutic armamentarium.
authors.affiliation: Division of Adult Mental Health, National Institute of Mental Health, Tokyo, Japan. yumhakamata@gmail.com
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hakamata
authors.forename: Shmuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lissek
authors.forename: Yair
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bar-Haim
authors.forename: Jennifer C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Britton
authors.forename: Nathan A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leibenluft
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pine
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000628:therapy*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D001288:Attention; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans