Psychosocial treatment prescriptions for generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social phobia, 1991-1996

Objective: Pharmacologic prescriptions for anxiety disorders have changed s ignificantly in the last decade. This article investigates whether psychoso cial treatments, as reported by 362 subjects in the Harvard/Brown Anxiety D isorders Research Program from 1991 to 1996, changed as well. Method: Subje cts were interviewed in 1991 and 1995-1996 to determine which psychosocial treatments (behavioral, cognitive, dynamic, or relaxation or meditation) th ey had received. Results: The percentage of subjects who received each type of psychosocial treatment either declined or remained the same from 1991 t o 1995-1996. Dynamic psychotherapy remained the most frequently used method of these four. The percentage of subjects receiving any such method declin ed. Conclusions: Behavioral and cognitive treatment, two empirically valida ted forms of psychotherapy, were less frequently used than dynamic psychoth erapy, which lacks such validation. All use of verbal treatment methods dec lined from 1991 to 1995-1996.