Physical Exercise Augmented CBT for GAD

Summary

Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is a severe and debilitating anxiety disorder that is highly prevalent among older adults. Anxiety and GAD is a well-documented risk factor for the development of other severe conditions such as depression and dementia, and effective treatments are called for. However, recommended treatment for GAD has consistently been found to yield blunted response rates for older adults compared to younger patients.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of exercise-augmented cognitive behaviour therapy for older adults with GAD. Exercise augmented CBT is expected to yield better results than standard CBT in terms of greater reduction of symptoms and increased rates of remission. The investigators will also investigate the effects of treatment on biological, physiological and neuropsychological measures.

Conditions

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy conducted individually. 10 weekly sessions, first session lasts 90 minutes, the remaining sessions last 45 minutes.

BEHAVIORAL

Physical Exercise

Manualised exercise. 15 weekly sessions with instructor, and two weekly unsupervised sessions performed individually.

BEHAVIORAL

Placebo control

One follow-up telephone call à 15 minutes each week for 15 weeks. Aims to control for therapist contact in physical exercise condition and total duration of treatment.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Bergen

  collaborator OTHER

• Norwegian University of Science and Technology

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Oslo

  collaborator OTHER

• University of California, Berkeley

  collaborator OTHER

• William Paterson University of New Jersey

  collaborator OTHER

• Ohio State University

  collaborator OTHER

• Solli Distriktspsykiatriske Senter

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Anders Hovland, PhD · Solli DPS, University of Bergen

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

60 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-03-31

Primary Completion

2023-10-31

Completion

2026-12-31

Countries

• Norway

Study Locations