Trial reportBMC psychology2020
How anxious is too anxious? State and trait physiological arousal predict anxious youth's treatment response to brief cognitive behavioral therapy.
Trial report in BMC psychology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02259036 (Using Smartphones to Enhance the Treatment of Childhood Anxiety), which is not on this map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Using Smartphones to Enhance the Treatment of Childhood Anxiety
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- A mechanistic trial of the neurobiology of extinction learning and intraparietal sulcus stimulation: Protocol.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2026Article
- Article
- The Relations Between Sensory Modulation, Hyper Arousability and Psychopathology in Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Psychotherapy 2.0 - Application context and effectiveness of sensor technology in psychotherapy with children and adolescents: A systematic review.Internet interventions · 2024Review
- The impact of extinction timing on pre-extinction arousal and subsequent return of fear.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Role of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in anxiety and cognition: Opportunities for intervention for anxiety-related disorders.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundExposure therapy is the gold standard for treating childhood anxiety, yet not all youth improve. Children do not always have insight on their distress, which can limit the utility of self-reported units of distress (SUDS) during exposures. Physiological assessment provides an objective means of monitoring emotional arousal. Electrodermal activity (EDA) in particular indexes sympathetic nervous system arousal which is heavily linked to anxiety. The aim of the current study was to examine the feasibility and utility of incorporating EDA assessment in an in-session exposure. We examined concordance between EDA and SUDS, and whether either predicted treatment response.
methodsThirty-four youth who met DSM-5 criteria for generalized, separation, and/or social anxiety disorder completed brief CBT (8 sessions) and completed a survey on trait physiological arousal. EDA and SUDS were collected from 18 youth (9 female, ages 9-14) during a mid-treatment exposure. Changes in anxiety severity were examined post-treatment.
resultsSUDS were not correlated with trait or state physiological arousal. There was a large association between heightened sympathetic arousal and poorer post-treatment response. Similarly, SUDS indices of greater fear activation and habituation were associated with poorer post-treatment response with a small to moderate effect size. Supplemental analyses among the full sample aligned: trait physiological arousal predicted poorer treatment response.
conclusionsThe lack of concordance between sympathetic arousal and SUDS indices highlights the limitations of relying solely on SUDS with pediatric populations. EDA provided unique data on youth's distress during exposures. Thus, results indicate that physiological assessment may exhibit clinical utility for aiding clinicians in monitoring youth's progress in exposure therapy.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02259036.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.