<div class="section">
<a class="named-anchor" id="S1">
<!--
named anchor
-->
</a>
<h5 class="section-title" id="d7234383e112">Objective</h5>
<p id="P1">Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depression (MDD), especially
when they
co-occur, are associated with suboptimal treatment response. One common feature of
these disorders is negative self-referential processing (NSRP; i.e., worry, rumination),
which worsens treatment outcome. Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) integrates principles
from affect science with traditional and contemporary cognitive behavioral treatments
to identify and modify the functional nature of NSRP by targeting motivational and
regulatory mechanisms, as well as behavioral consequences.
</p>
</div><div class="section">
<a class="named-anchor" id="S2">
<!--
named anchor
-->
</a>
<h5 class="section-title" id="d7234383e117">Method</h5>
<p id="P2">. Building on encouraging open trial findings, 53 patients with a primary
diagnosis
of GAD (43% with comorbid MDD) were randomly assigned to immediate treatment with
ERT (
<i>n</i> = 28) or a modified attention control condition (MAC,
<i>n</i> = 25).
</p>
</div><div class="section">
<a class="named-anchor" id="S3">
<!--
named anchor
-->
</a>
<h5 class="section-title" id="d7234383e128">Results</h5>
<p id="P3">ERT patients, as compared to MAC patients, evidenced statistically and
clinically
meaningful improvement on clinical indicators of GAD and MDD, worry, rumination, comorbid
disorder severity, functional impairment, quality of life, as well as hypothesized
mechanisms reflecting mindful attentional, metacognitive, and overall emotion regulation,
which all demonstrated mediation of primary outcomes. This superiority of ERT exceeded
medium effect sizes with most outcomes surpassing conventions for a large effect.
Treatment effects were maintained for nine months following the end of acute treatment.
Overall, ERT resulted in high rates of high endstate functioning for both GAD and
MDD that were maintained into the follow-up period.
</p>
</div><div class="section">
<a class="named-anchor" id="S4">
<!--
named anchor
-->
</a>
<h5 class="section-title" id="d7234383e133">Conclusions</h5>
<p id="P4">Findings provide encouraging support for the efficacy and hypothesized
mechanisms
underlying ERT and point to fruitful directions for improving our understanding and
treatment of complex clinical conditions such as GAD with co-occurring MDD.
</p>
</div>