Advancing cognitive therapy for anxiety disorders and PTSD (360G-Wellcome-200796_Z_16_Z)

The proposed research addresses two of the major problems in psychotherapy research: How can effective psychological treatments be made available to the large number of people with mental health problems? and How can researchers make rapid progress in making the treatments even more effective? The applicants have developed leading psychological therapies for three anxiety-related disorders (social anxiety disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and panic disorder). They now propose to harness the power of the internet to solve both problems. Internet-delivered versions of the treatments will be developed and evaluated that require much less therapist time and can be delivered anywhere. Dissemination and evaluation of the treatments within NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services will create a large database that will enable rigorous study of moderators and mediators of therapeutic change to identify targets for further improvements. Modifications of the treatment will then be evaluated in experimental treatment studies. The work will help realise the population level mental health benefits of previous Trust investment in psychological therapy research and align with the Trust’s new focus on maximizing the application of research to improve health by focusing on new product development and the uptake of patient-oriented research advances.