Beating Anxiety Together (BAT)
Principal Investigator: Professor Helen McConachie
Co-applicants: Deborah Garland, Professor Ann Le Couteur, Dr Helen Taylor, Mrs Janice Brown, Professor Mark Freeston, Professor Sue Leekam.
Start and End Dates: September 2009 - September 2011
The study
This study aimed to test the acceptability of a brief group cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for anxiety in young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The study also assessed young people’s reports of their anxiety, their autism characteristics and thinking styles.
The intervention was a recently adapted approach to treatment for anxiety in young people with ASD. It was developed in Australia and involves 6 sessions of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) delivered in a group setting by a range of trained professionals.
Parents were asked to attend a parent group held at the same time, to allow strategies learned by young people in treatment sessions to be generalised to home with the support of their parents.
Participants
Young people aged 9-13yrs who have a diagnosis of ASD and who often experience anxiety were invited to take part.
What the researchers did:
Young people completed some puzzles and games, answered some questions, and were sometimes asked to attend a weekly group session. Children and parents took part in assessments, and once they were found to be eligible for the study they were randomised to either ‘immediate therapy’ or ‘delayed therapy’. Those families allocated to immediate therapy took part in the ‘Exploring Feelings’ therapy groups soon after, from January to October 2010. The children learned about managing their feelings of anxiety and the parents learned the same strategies in a parallel parent group. Those families who had been allocated to ‘delayed therapy’ were also offered a chance to take part in the ‘Exploring Feelings’ therapy groups 6 to 9 months after the follow up assessments had been completed.
Who funded the research?
The research is funded by the Research for Patient Benefit Programme, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust and Newcastle University.
Findings
We found that those young people who had attended the immediate therapy groups showed a significantly larger reduction in severity of anxiety than those who had not. It was clear from the results that the group therapy was well received by families and that children and parents found it worthwhile taking part. We are now looking into the possibility of running a multi-centre study with families attending health services in other parts of England. If we can recruit larger numbers of children and parents, we will have greater certainty about how beneficial the therapy may be.
Published Papers
McConachie, H., McLaughlin, E., Grahame, V., Taylor, H., Honey, E., Tavernor, L., Rodgers, J., Freeston, M., Hemm, C., Steen, N. and Le Couteur, A. (2014) Group therapy for anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorder, Autism, 18: 723.
This research was commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under the Research for Patient Benefit programme (PB-PG-0408-16069). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.