Article type
Year
Abstract
Background:
The field of anxiety disorders is characterised by the production of many randomised controlled trials. Most of these studies include small samples of participants suffering from a vast array of anxiety conditions and assess the efficacy of a number of heterogeneous psychological interventions. It becomes particularly interesting, therefore, to develop and maintain a well-organised database of such a continuously growing body of evidence, to be used to plan and conduct meta-analytic re-analyses able to address specific research questions in a timely and comprehensive way.
Objectives:
To develop and maintain a database of randomized controlled trials results of psychological treatments for anxiety disorders.
Methods:
Four bibliographical databases, PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were firstly searched in April 2019, and last updated in January 2020. The database will be updated every year. We included all randomized trials in which a psychotherapy condition was compared with any other condition. That could be another psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, a control condition (such as waiting list, and care-as-usual). We also included studies comparing combined treatment of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy with either of these alone. Data on the participant characteristics, therapies, general characteristics of the studies, and the effect sizes for each of these RCTs are currently being collected. The validity of included studies is being assessed using the ‘Risk of bias 2’ assessment tool.
Results:
To date, the database includes 527 randomized controlled trials, that are categorized as follows: 126 Panic disorder and agoraphobia trials; 82 generalized anxiety disorder; 148 social anxiety disorder/social phobia; 106 specific phobias/fears; 65 any anxiety disorders. The publication time span ranges from 1968 to 2020. This database has several purposes. First, it can give other researchers access to the studies we collected to facilitate replications and independent analyses of selections of studies. Second, it will provide background information about already published meta-analyses. Third, as many studies have already been conducted in the field, this database will help researchers planning new trials to focus on gaps in existing knowledge without wasting resources and time.
Conclusions:
Psychological treatment for anxiety disorders is one of the best examined field of psychotherapy for any mental health problem. To date, 527 trials on psychotherapy for anxiety disorders in adults are available. Because of this huge body of knowledge, it is important that the results of these studies are summarized and integrated using meta-analytic techniques, to keep a good, up-to-date overview of this field. It will also save considerable time and effort for researchers who want to conduct a specific meta-analysis. Furthermore, it will guide future research as knowledge gaps will be easily identified.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement:
Not required for this type of project.
The field of anxiety disorders is characterised by the production of many randomised controlled trials. Most of these studies include small samples of participants suffering from a vast array of anxiety conditions and assess the efficacy of a number of heterogeneous psychological interventions. It becomes particularly interesting, therefore, to develop and maintain a well-organised database of such a continuously growing body of evidence, to be used to plan and conduct meta-analytic re-analyses able to address specific research questions in a timely and comprehensive way.
Objectives:
To develop and maintain a database of randomized controlled trials results of psychological treatments for anxiety disorders.
Methods:
Four bibliographical databases, PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were firstly searched in April 2019, and last updated in January 2020. The database will be updated every year. We included all randomized trials in which a psychotherapy condition was compared with any other condition. That could be another psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, a control condition (such as waiting list, and care-as-usual). We also included studies comparing combined treatment of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy with either of these alone. Data on the participant characteristics, therapies, general characteristics of the studies, and the effect sizes for each of these RCTs are currently being collected. The validity of included studies is being assessed using the ‘Risk of bias 2’ assessment tool.
Results:
To date, the database includes 527 randomized controlled trials, that are categorized as follows: 126 Panic disorder and agoraphobia trials; 82 generalized anxiety disorder; 148 social anxiety disorder/social phobia; 106 specific phobias/fears; 65 any anxiety disorders. The publication time span ranges from 1968 to 2020. This database has several purposes. First, it can give other researchers access to the studies we collected to facilitate replications and independent analyses of selections of studies. Second, it will provide background information about already published meta-analyses. Third, as many studies have already been conducted in the field, this database will help researchers planning new trials to focus on gaps in existing knowledge without wasting resources and time.
Conclusions:
Psychological treatment for anxiety disorders is one of the best examined field of psychotherapy for any mental health problem. To date, 527 trials on psychotherapy for anxiety disorders in adults are available. Because of this huge body of knowledge, it is important that the results of these studies are summarized and integrated using meta-analytic techniques, to keep a good, up-to-date overview of this field. It will also save considerable time and effort for researchers who want to conduct a specific meta-analysis. Furthermore, it will guide future research as knowledge gaps will be easily identified.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement:
Not required for this type of project.