Brief Interventions for Anxiety Disorders: Clinical Outcome Studies

While the number of well-designed controlled clinical outcome studies is not large, brief psychotherapeutic interventions appear to play a useful role in the treatment of anxiety spectrum disorders. Such interventions not only appear to be effective in their own right, but also add a significant component to the benefits of medication. This article summarizes and describes the time-limited interventions and outcomes of more than 50 studies, including a number that measured the effectiveness of crisis intervention and brief therapy approaches with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) precipitated by gunshot injuries, sexual assaults, terrorist attacks, vehicular accidents, and violent crimes. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2:325–339 (2002)]