What good are positive emotions for treatment? Trait positive emotionality predicts response to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for anxiety.
OBJECTIVE
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is empirically supported for the treatment of anxiety disorders; however, not all individuals achieve recovery following CBT. Positive emotions serve a number of functions that theoretically should facilitate response to CBT - they promote flexible patterns of information processing and assimilation of new information, encourage approach-oriented behavior, and speed physiological recovery from negative emotions. We conducted a secondary analysis of an existing clinical trial dataset to test the a priori hypothesis that individual differences in trait positive emotions would predict CBT response for anxiety.


METHODS
Participants meeting diagnostic criteria for panic disorder (n = 28) or generalized anxiety disorder (n = 31) completed 10 weekly individual CBT sessions. Trait positive emotionality was assessed at pre-treatment, and severity of anxiety symptoms and associated impairment was assessed throughout treatment.


RESULTS
Participants who reported a greater propensity to experience positive emotions at pre-treatment displayed the largest reduction in anxiety symptoms as well as fewer symptoms following treatment. Positive emotions remained a robust predictor of change in symptoms when controlling for baseline depression severity.


CONCLUSIONS
Initial evidence supports the predictive value of trait positive emotions as a prognostic indicator for CBT outcome in a GAD and PD sample.
University of California, San Diego Department of Psychiatry, United States. Electronic address: c1taylor@ucsd.edu.
Charles T
CT
Taylor
University of California, San Diego Department of Psychiatry, United States.
Sarah E
SE
Knapp
University of California, San Diego Department of Psychiatry, United States; VA San Diego Healthcare System Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, United States.
Jessica A
JA
Bomyea
University of California, San Diego Department of Psychiatry, United States.
Holly J
HJ
Ramsawh
University of California, San Diego Department of Psychiatry, United States.
Martin P
MP
Paulus
University of California, San Diego Department of Psychiatry, United States; University of California, San Diego Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, United States.
Murray B
MB
Stein
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
Anxiety; Cognitive behavioral therapy; Positive emotions; Prediction; Treatment response