Attention bias modification treatment: a meta-analysis toward the establishment of novel treatment for anxiety.
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.
Hakamata
Yuko
Y
Division of Adult Mental Health, National Institute of Mental Health, Tokyo, Japan. yumhakamata@gmail.com
Lissek
Shmuel
S
Bar-Haim
Yair
Y
Britton
Jennifer C
JC
Fox
Nathan A
NA
Leibenluft
Ellen
E
Ernst
Monique
M
Pine
Daniel S
DS
D001007:Anxiety / Q000628:therapy*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D001288:Attention; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans