Skill Acquisition During Transdiagnostic Treatment With the Unified Protocol

Shannon Sauer-Zavala; Anthony J. Rosellini; Kate H. Bentley; Amantia A. Ametaj; James F. Boswell; Clair Cassiello-Robbins; Julianne Wilner Tirpak; Todd J. Farchione; David H. Barlow

doi:10.1016/j.beth.2021.03.001

Skill Acquisition During Transdiagnostic Treatment With the Unified Protocol

Shannon Sauer-Zavala, Anthony J. Rosellini, Kate H. Bentley, Amantia A. Ametaj, James F. Boswell, Clair Cassiello-Robbins, Julianne Wilner Tirpak, Todd J. Farchione, David H. Barlow

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Unified Protocol (UP) for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders is an emotion-focused, cognitive-behavioral intervention developed to address the full range of anxiety, depressive, and related disorders. The UP consists of core therapeutic skills that, though unique in focus, are each designed to promote an approach-oriented stance toward emotional experiences. The goal of the present investigation was to characterize changes in these skills for patients that received a course of treatment with the UP, as well as to examine associations between skills and symptoms changes. Patients with principal anxiety disorders, assigned to receive treatment with the UP (N = 88) as part of a randomized controlled trial, were included in this study. They completed validated self-report measures of UP skills (Understanding Emotions, Mindful Emotion Awareness, Cognitive Flexibility, Countering Emotional Behaviors, and Interoceptive Awareness and Tolerance), as well as clinician-rated measures of psychological symptoms. Skill measures improved significantly over the course of 12 to 16 UP treatment sessions and changes in these skills measures were associated with improvements in anxiety symptoms. Determining whether improvement on all the skills learned during a course of treatment with UP is associated with symptom remission is critical to establishing the most streamlined and efficient interventions that may ultimately be best suited to widespread dissemination.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1325-1338
Number of pages	14
Journal	Behavior Therapy
Volume	52
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2021.03.001
State	Published - Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021

Funding

This study was funded by grant R01 MH090053 from the National Institute of Mental Health Awarded to Dr. Barlow. Additionally, Dr. Barlow reported receiving royalties from Oxford University Press (which includes royalties for all 5 treatment manuals included in this study), Guilford Publications Inc, Cengage Learning, and Pearson Publishing; receiving grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse, and Colciencias (Government of Columbia Initiative for Science, Technology, and Health Innovation); serving as a consultant for and receiving honoraria from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making, the Department of Defense, the Renfrew Center, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Universidad Católica de Santa Maria (Arequipa, Peru), New Zealand Psychological Association, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mayo Clinic, and various American universities. Drs. Sauer-Zavala and Farchione reported receiving royalties from Oxford University Press for one of the treatment manuals included in this study. No other disclosures were reported.

Funders	Funder number
Guilford Publications Inc.
National Institute of Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse, and Colciencias
New Zealand Psychological Association, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Universidad Católica de Santa Maria
U.S. Department of Defense
National Institute of Mental Health	R01MH090053
National Institute of Mental Health
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Mayo Clinic Rochester
Chinese University of Hong Kong

Keywords

Unified Protocol
cognitive-behavioral therapy
skills
transdiagnostic

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Clinical Psychology

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10.1016/j.beth.2021.03.001

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title = "Skill Acquisition During Transdiagnostic Treatment With the Unified Protocol",

abstract = "The Unified Protocol (UP) for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders is an emotion-focused, cognitive-behavioral intervention developed to address the full range of anxiety, depressive, and related disorders. The UP consists of core therapeutic skills that, though unique in focus, are each designed to promote an approach-oriented stance toward emotional experiences. The goal of the present investigation was to characterize changes in these skills for patients that received a course of treatment with the UP, as well as to examine associations between skills and symptoms changes. Patients with principal anxiety disorders, assigned to receive treatment with the UP (N = 88) as part of a randomized controlled trial, were included in this study. They completed validated self-report measures of UP skills (Understanding Emotions, Mindful Emotion Awareness, Cognitive Flexibility, Countering Emotional Behaviors, and Interoceptive Awareness and Tolerance), as well as clinician-rated measures of psychological symptoms. Skill measures improved significantly over the course of 12 to 16 UP treatment sessions and changes in these skills measures were associated with improvements in anxiety symptoms. Determining whether improvement on all the skills learned during a course of treatment with UP is associated with symptom remission is critical to establishing the most streamlined and efficient interventions that may ultimately be best suited to widespread dissemination.",

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author = "Shannon Sauer-Zavala and Rosellini, \{Anthony J.\} and Bentley, \{Kate H.\} and Ametaj, \{Amantia A.\} and Boswell, \{James F.\} and Clair Cassiello-Robbins and \{Wilner Tirpak\}, Julianne and Farchione, \{Todd J.\} and Barlow, \{David H.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021",

year = "2021",

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doi = "10.1016/j.beth.2021.03.001",

language = "English",

volume = "52",

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Skill Acquisition During Transdiagnostic Treatment With the Unified Protocol

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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