Anxiety sensitivity is the fear of anxiety-related bodily sensations, which arises from beliefs that the sensations have harmful somatic, psychological, or social consequences. Elevated anxiety sensitivity, as assessed by the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), is associated with panic disorder. The present study investigated the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and depression. Participants were people with panic disorder (n = 52), major depression (n = 46), or both (n = 37). Mean ASI scores of each group were elevated, compared to published norms. Principal components analysis revealed 3 factors of anxiety sensitivity: (a) fear of publicly observable symptoms, (b) fear of loss of cognitive control, and (c) fear of bodily sensations. Factors 1 and 3 were correlated with anxiety-related measures but not with depression-related measures. Conversely, factor 2 was correlated with depression-related measures but not with anxiety-related measures.

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This study examined the effects of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) compared with traditional behavior therapy (exposure and response prevention [ERP]) in the group treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Of the 76 participants who started treatment, 38 were wait-listed for 3 months before treatment to assess possible course effects. Both treatments were superior to the control condition in symptom reduction, with ERP being marginally more effective than CBT by end of treatment and again at 3-month follow-up. In terms of clinically significant improvement, treatment groups were equivalent on the conclusion of treatment, but 3 months later significantly more ERP participants met criteria for recovered status. Only 1 of 7 belief measures changed with treatment improvement, and the extent of this cognitive change was similar between CBT and ERP groups. Discussion includes consideration of optimal formats for the delivery of different types of treatment.

One hundred seventy-eight moderately clinically depressed clients were given 10 weeks of psychotherapy, behavior therapy, drug therapy, or relaxation therapy (treatment control condition). Fifty-five normal subjects were evaluated for comparison purposes, but were not part of the data analyses. In addition to showing differential treatment drop-out rates, results showed behavior therapy to be superior on 9 of 10 measures at the end of treatment and marginally superior at the 3-month follow-up. Psychotherapy performed most poorly on most outcome measures at both evaluation periods, and there were no significant differences between drug therapy and relaxation therapy on any outcome measure. Neither therapist experience nor client cluster type interacted with treatment. There was an overall significant difference between high and low treatment responders, but discriminant function classification predicted treatment response correctly in only 68% of the cases.

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