This article reports on a pilot study of a parent-only cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and anxiety difficulties. Twenty-one parents of anxious children with ASD (5-11 of age) completed the From Timid to Tiger intervention. Parent outcome measures were assessed at…

Exposure and response prevention is an evidence-based intervention recommended as a first-line treatment for childhood anxiety disorders. Despite over a century of research establishing its efficacy, many school- and college-aged youth fail to receive timely and effective treatment. This brief review will summarize the rationale and efficacy of…

Co-occurring psychiatric diagnoses are very common in individuals with ASD. Little is known about the effect that co-occurring psychiatric conditions may have on treatment response to CBT for children with ASD and anxiety. The present study examined the relationship between co-occurring psychiatric diagnoses and response to CBT for anxiety in…

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) programs adapted to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) effectively reduce anxiety when run in university clinics. Forty-nine children aged 8-14 years participated in a waitlist controlled study in a general child psychiatric hospital setting. Post-treatment 30% of the children were free of their…

Psychiatric epidemiologists, developmental psychopathologists, prevention scientists, and treatment researchers have long speculated that treating child anxiety disorders could prevent alcohol and other drug use disorders in young adulthood. A primary challenge in examining long-term effects of anxiety disorder treatment from randomized controlled…

Background: The prevalence of anxiety disorders is high in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS), an under-recognized multisystem condition. Prominent features include an array of somatic, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric disorders. This case study reports for the first time on the application of individual cognitive behavioral therapy in…

Anxiety disorders are one of the most commonly re-occurring co-occurring diagnoses of children with autism, affecting approximately as many as 84% of children with ASD (Chalfant, et al., 2006) as opposed to 13% of children without autism (van Steensel et al., 2011). A growing body of research indicates that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an…

Purpose: The purpose of this review article is to provide an overview of the current evidence base for the behavioral management of stuttering and associated social anxiety. Method: We overview recent research about stuttering and social anxiety in the context of contemporary cognitive models of social anxiety disorder. That emerging evidence for…

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for child anxiety disorders. Low-intensity forms of CBT, such as guided parent-delivered CBT (GPD-CBT), have been developed to increase access; however, it is unclear why some children benefit from this treatment and others do not. This qualitative study aimed to increase understanding…

Anxiety/obsessive-compulsive disorders are common among youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two versions of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) are effective, with some advantage for a personalized, adapted version. This study evaluated predictors and moderators of standard CBT and adapted CBT. Youth (N = 167) ages 7-13 were randomized to…

To address the paucity of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) protocols available to treat anxiety in preschoolers with ASD, we piloted a family-centered CBT protocol in a series of 16 children aged 3-7 years with ASD and anxiety disorders and explored its feasibility and efficacy. Children were assessed at baseline, post-treatment (PT), and…

Background: School-based treatments for anxiety disorders are needed to address barriers to accessing community-based services. A key question for school administers are the costs related to these treatments. Aims of the Study: This study examined the cost-effectiveness of a school-based modular cognitive behavioral therapy (M-CBT) for pediatric…

The school setting is important for delivering targeted prevention to adolescents with anxiety. However, schools may not have available providers with training or experience in delivering evidence-based interventions, e.g., school psychologists. Training providers available in the schools, e.g., school nurses, is important. Further, to investigate…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience obsessions and compulsions similar to those specified in "DSM-5" for obsessive compulsive disorder yet little controlled research exists on treating these behaviours. Thirty-seven children (7-13 years old) were randomly assigned to a 9-week functional behavior-based cognitive…

Mental health treatment in schools has the potential to improve youth treatment access. However, school-specific barriers can make implementing evidence-based interventions difficult. Task-shifting (i.e., training lay staff to implement interventions) and computer-assisted interventions may mitigate these barriers. This paper reports on a…