Introduction

EFFECTIVENESS OF TRANS-DIAGNOSTIC COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL TREATMENTS IN EMOTIONAL DISORDERS

Objectives: The “trans-diagnostic” approach to mental disorders is focused on the cognitive, emotional and behavioural dysfunctions underlying several psychopathological conditions. It has been recently introduced into clinical practice with the aim of overcoming limitations in classical nosography and in diagnosis-specific treatments. However, it is still unclear whether and to what extent such treatments have better outcomes when compared to classical diagnosis-specific approaches. The present review aims to analyse the clinical efficacy of cognitive-behavioural trans-diagnostic treatments in patients suffering from emotional disorders.

Method: The following bibliographic databases were searched: Pubmed, Google Scholar and Discovery Sapienza. The randomized clinical trials published from 2017 to 2020 and addressing the efficacy of the trans-diagnostic approach to emotional disorders were reviewed.
Results: The selected studies showed that the efficacy of trans-diagnostic approach in emotional disorders is higher when compared with classical treatments and that both trans-diagnostic and diagnosis-specific treatments are equally effective.

Discussion: The trans-diagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatments can be considered as an effective alternative to diagnosis-specific ones, especially when comorbidity between different emotional disorders is present.

POSTERS

These two posters have been selected from those presented at the 16th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine Medicine: “Interdisciplinary behavioral medicine: systems, network and interventions”, held in Glasgow in June 2021.

ANXIETY TESTING: FROM LITERATURE REVIEW TO DESIGNING A TRANS-DIAGNOSTIC TREATMENT PROGRAM

Aims. Test anxiety is a psychological condition that has relevant consequences on epidemiological and clinical grounds. People experiencing test anxiety suffer from high levels of distress in different kinds of testing situations. This paper analyses available empirical evidence addressing the efficacy of psychotherapy programs aimed at reducing test anxiety symptoms and describes the variables that have positive effects in the treatment of test anxiety.
Method. A literature search has been performed in order to identify both the variables most frequently used in the treatment of test anxiety and the evidence based efficacy of test anxiety intervention programs.
Results. The present review included 9 papers describing test anxiety interventions conducted in various geographical and cultural contexts. The selected interventions were focused on the relation between test anxiety and the following variables: procrastination, self-efficacy, self-esteem, learning skills deficits, cognitive biases, perfectionism. The majority of intervention programs had a short duration, from a minimum of 2 sessions to a maximum of 12 sessions, were mostly articulated in weekly sessions and were based on cognitive-behavioural theories, models and techniques.
Conclusion. The analysed programs were found to have positive effects on the reduction of test anxiety symptoms. However, the present review reveals that researchers in the field do not agree about what variables have to be specifically addressed in test anxiety treatments and about what are the process that determine and maintain such a disorder.