Efficacy of transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety and depression in adults, children and adolescents: A meta-analysis

According to these authors, the highest comorbidity rates were associated with a principal diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), dysthymia (DYS) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). [...]all of these previous reviews incorporated a number of studies that did not used theory-based transdiagnostic CBT protocols (i.e., T-CBT protocols designed to address underlying mechanisms shared by a group of disorders) such as classical CBT applied to several specific anxiety disorders, hybrid protocols (transdiagnostic/disorder-specific protocols), tailored treatments (i.e., treatments adapted to the patients' specific diagnoses), or modular approaches. [...]we aimed to explore the impact of potential moderators of treatment effect, including participants' primary characteristics, diagnostic measures, and delivery format. [...]far, this is the first meta-analysis to examine the efficacy of transdiagnostic CBT protocols explicitly based in the transdiagnostic theory-driven approach, to include studies conducted with both adult and children/ adolescent samples, and to use a more complete Hedges g's formula to calculate the effect size of RCT, taking into account pre- and post-treatment data. [...]the lack of consensus within the research community regarding the appropriate instruments to measure the effectiveness of transdiagnostic CBT for anxiety and depressive disorders should be noted, as well as the way to define the patients' comorbid disorders (some studies reported the average number of diagnosis per patient, others the percentage of additional anxiety and/or depressive disorders, etc.).