Anxiety sensitivity as a malleable mechanistic target for prevention interventions: A meta-analysis of the efficacy of brief treatment interventions.

Abstract

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a transdiagnostic risk factor and potential treatment target for prevention of associated psychopathology and negative health behaviors. We conducted a meta-analysis evaluating the efficacy of brief interventions in at-risk samples for reducing AS and associated clinical/behavioral outcomes (e.g., depression, alcohol use) across 28 studies (1,998 participants). AS targeted interventions, compared to control conditions, evidenced a significant moderate effect size for alleviating AS from pre- to post-treatment (<i>d</i> = 0.54) and approached a large effect size from pre-treatment to short-term follow-up (<i>d</i> = 0.78). The effect size for long-term follow-up did not reach significance (<i>d</i> = 0.29). For clinical/behavioral outcomes, AS interventions demonstrated significant small-to-moderate effect sizes for the three timepoints examined (<i>d</i>'s = 0.20-0.41). Our findings help validate AS as a modifiable mechanistic target for prevention efforts.