A program designed to train and support primary care doctors and their staff as they provide treatment for anxiety disorders has been shown to be effective in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Here is some information about anxiety disorders: • They are associated with the experience of intense, prolonged feelings of distress and fright for no obvious reasons • They are the most common of all mental disorders • They include panic disorder, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder Researchers out of the University of Washington School of Medicine randomly assigned over 1000 individuals suffering from one or more anxiety disorders to treatment by primary care services using a flexible treatment-delivery model known as Coordinated Anxiety Learning and Management, or CALM, or to usual care. CALM included training modules for staff, computer assisted programs to help them properly tailor treatments, and a web-based follow-up system that allowed patients to be monitored by experts in anxiety disorders in real time. It offered a flexible array of treatments that patients could choose from and that could be modified as needed. The treatment lasted for 3 to 12 months, depending on each individual patients needs. After 6, 12, and 18 months, measures of overall anxiety were significantly more improved among those treated through the CALM program as compared with those who received usual care. After one year, a …
Anxiety Disorders & Panic Attacks Information
