Jasper A J Smits

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is frequently used for various adult anxiety disorders, but there has been no systematic review of the efficacy of CBT in randomized placebo-controlled trials. The present study meta-analytically reviewed the efficacy of CBT versus placebo for adult anxiety disorders.

DATA SOURCES: We conducted a computerized search for treatment outcome studies of anxiety disorders from the first available date to March 1, 2007. We searched MEDLINE, ...

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety-related disorders based on randomized placebo-controlled trials. We included 41 studies that randomly assigned patients (N = 2,843) with acute stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder (PD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or social anxiety disorder (SAD) to CBT or a psychological or pill placebo condition. Findings ...

Importance: Whether and under which conditions D-cycloserine (DCS) augments the effects of exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy for anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and posttraumatic stress disorders is unclear.

Objective: To clarify whether DCS is superior to placebo in augmenting the effects of cognitive behavior therapy for anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and posttraumatic stress disorders and to evaluate whether antidepressants interact with DCS and the effect of potential ...

BACKGROUND: Although cigarette smoking is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States (US), over 40 million adults in the US currently smoke. Quitting smoking is particularly difficult for smokers with certain types of psychological vulnerability. Researchers have frequently called attention to the relation between smoking and anxiety-related states and disorders, and evidence suggests that panic and related anxiety vulnerability factors, specifically anxiety sensitivity ...

OBJECTIVE: People with depressive symptoms report lower levels of exercise self-efficacy and are more likely to discontinue regular exercise than others, but it is unclear how depressive symptoms affect the relation between exercise and self-efficacy. We sought to clarify whether depressive symptoms moderate the relations between exercise and same-day self-efficacy, and between self-efficacy and next-day exercise.

METHODS: Participants (n = 116) were physically inactive adults (35% ...

OBJECTIVE: The evidence for the efficacy of D-cycloserine (DCS) for augmenting cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders has been mixed. Guided by preclinical research and initial findings from a small-scale study involving humans, we tested the hypothesis that DCS enhancement of exposure therapy would be specific to successful exposure sessions.

METHOD: Medication-free adults with generalized social anxiety disorder (N = 145) received 50 mg of DCS or placebo 1 h before ...

BACKGROUND: Sleep quality may be an important, yet relatively neglected, predictor of treatment outcome in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders. Specifically, poor sleep quality may impair memory consolidation of in-session extinction learning. We therefore examined sleep quality as a predictor of treatment outcome in CBT for social anxiety disorder and the impact of d-cycloserine (DCS) on this relationship.

METHODS: One hundred sixty-nine participants with a primary ...

OBJECTIVES: High anxiety sensitivity predicts poor smoking cessation outcomes. Aerobic exercise reduces anxiety sensitivity and aspects of the risk conferred by anxiety sensitivity. In the current study, we examined whether exercise can aid smoking cessation in adults with high anxiety sensitivity.

METHODS: Participants were sedentary and low-activity adult daily smokers (n = 136) with elevated prescreen anxiety sensitivity. Participants received 15 weeks of standard smoking cessation ...

OBJECTIVE: Threat-related attention bias figures prominently in contemporary accounts of the maintenance of anxiety disorders, yet longitudinal intervention research relating attention bias to anxiety symptom severity is limited. Capitalizing on recent advances in the conceptualization and measurement of attention bias, we aimed to examine the relation between attention bias, indexed using trial-level bias scores (TLBSs) to quantify temporal dynamics reflecting dysregulation of ...

CONTEXT: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is common and debilitating. Although exposure therapy is one of the most effective forms of psychotherapy for this disorder, many patients remain symptomatic. Fear reduction in exposure therapy is similar to extinction learning, and early clinical data with specific phobias suggest that the treatment effects of exposure therapy for SAD may be enhanced with d-cycloserine, an agonist at the glutamatergic N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor.

OBJECTIVE: To ...

BACKGROUND: Exposure therapy is an established learning-based intervention for the treatment of anxiety disorders with an average response rate of nearly 50%, leaving room for improvement. Emerging strategies to enhance exposure therapy in humans and fear extinction retention in animal models are primarily pharmacological. These approaches are limited as many patients report preferring non-pharmacological approaches in therapy. With general cognitive enhancement effects, exercise has ...

Pharmacotherapy is an effective treatment for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), but few studies have examined the nature of decline of anxiety and depression during pharmacotherapy for GAD and even fewer studies have examined predictors of symptom decline. This study examined the decline in symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients with GAD during a 6-week open trial of fluoxetine. Growth curve analyses indicated that pharmacotherapy with fluoxetine led to significant declines in ...

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that comorbid depression influences the outcome of cognitive-behavioral treatment for patients presenting with social phobia. Little is known, however, about the influence of comorbid social phobia on the response to cognitive therapy (CT) for depression among adults presenting with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). These analyses seek to clarify this relationship.

METHODS: Patients (N=156) with recurrent DSM-IV MDD entered CT (20% also met DSM-IV ...

OBJECTIVE: Preclinical studies have shown that low-dose methylene blue increases mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase activity in the brain and improves memory retention after learning tasks, including fear extinction. The authors report on the first controlled experiment to examine the memory-enhancing effects of posttraining methylene blue administration on retention of fear extinction and contextual memory following fear extinction training.

METHOD: Adult participants displaying marked ...

OBJECTIVE: Among people living with HIV, cigarette smoking rates are higher than among the general population, and anxiety, depression, and their disorders are common and associated with smoking and poorer outcomes during cessation. This study evaluated the efficacy of an integrated smoking cessation intervention, developed to target anxiety, depression, and smoking cessation concurrently among people living with HIV.

METHOD: Smokers living with HIV who reported at least moderate ...