Enhanced Treatment For Social Phobia Through The Incorporation Of Attentional Re-training.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$465,162.00
Summary
Social phobia is a serious difficulty that can cause tremendous interference in an individual's life. Social phobia can interfere with an individual's social and romantic life, work and study aspirations, and even increase medical and other psychological problems. Psychological programs to help individuals manage their anxiety have been developed and shown to lead to relatively strong positive outcomes. Recent theoretical understanding has suggested that one maintaining factor in social phobia m ....Social phobia is a serious difficulty that can cause tremendous interference in an individual's life. Social phobia can interfere with an individual's social and romantic life, work and study aspirations, and even increase medical and other psychological problems. Psychological programs to help individuals manage their anxiety have been developed and shown to lead to relatively strong positive outcomes. Recent theoretical understanding has suggested that one maintaining factor in social phobia may be these people's tendency to focus onto negative information. In some exciting developments, several researchers have shown that simply training people with social phobia to focus their attention away from negative information, with no other treatment components, can produce a marked change in their fears. Therefore it makes sense that incorporating these methods into current standard treatment packages, may increase their effectiveness. The current study aims to compare the current best practice treatment package for social phobia with a combination of this package plus the recent attention re-training methods. It is expected that incorporating attention re-training into standard treatment with significantly improve its effects.Read moreRead less
A Brain-Based Measure Of Anxiety Sensitivity: Validation Of A Novel Intermediate Phenotype With Psychophysiologically-Informed Neuroimaging
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$271,930.00
Summary
Excessive anxiety is disabling, such that people who suffer from a clinical anxiety disorder are often crippled by overwhelming emotional and physical symptoms. We will use sophisticated brain imaging technology to understand how certain brain areas produce feelings of anxiety, including a common fear of arousal related bodily sensations. This work is expected to enhance our basic understanding of the brain basis of anxiety symptoms and may inform new treatment options with biological rationale.
This project maps and manipulates the brainstem mechanisms causing expression of fear. It does so using brain cell type and brain circuit specific mechanisms.
The Effectiveness Of An Early Intervention And Prevention Strategy For Anxiety And Depressive Disorders.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$119,924.00
Summary
Adult anxiety and depressive disorders are common, cause significant distress to sufferers and cost to the community, and generally begin in childhood. Prior research has shown that children who exhibit higher than average levels of anxiety in their late childhood are at risk for developing anxiety and depressive disorders as they grow older. However if at risk children can learn skills to better manage their anxiety, the chance that they will continue to experience significant anxiety problems ....Adult anxiety and depressive disorders are common, cause significant distress to sufferers and cost to the community, and generally begin in childhood. Prior research has shown that children who exhibit higher than average levels of anxiety in their late childhood are at risk for developing anxiety and depressive disorders as they grow older. However if at risk children can learn skills to better manage their anxiety, the chance that they will continue to experience significant anxiety problems is greatly reduced. For example, school-based skills-building programs run by specialist mental health professionals have been shown to reduce the rate of existing anxiety disorder and prevent the onset of new anxiety disorders across middle to late childhood and early adolescence. The proposed study will aim to show that a school-based program, run by school counsellors, can prevent the development of anxiety and depressive disorders in late adolescence. In other words, the aim is to demonstrate whether the benefit of the program can be achieved across the wider school-aged population when conducted wholly within the education sector. This outcome is significant, not only in its potential to reduce distress to a large number of adolescents and their families, but in reducing costs to the community in terms of reduced disability and reduced need for health care and specialist mental health treatment.Read moreRead less
Theoretically Guided Improvement In The Treatment Of Social Phobia: A Randomised Controlled Trial.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$302,830.00
Summary
Social phobia is a serious mental disorder that affects up to 13% of the population across their lifetime and causes marked life interference and costs to the community. Treatments for social phobia have been improving over the past decades and currently, there is good outcome with standard treatment packages. However, several authors have pointed out that treatment outcomes, while good, are far from perfect. We have recently developed a model of social anxiety that points out how people with so ....Social phobia is a serious mental disorder that affects up to 13% of the population across their lifetime and causes marked life interference and costs to the community. Treatments for social phobia have been improving over the past decades and currently, there is good outcome with standard treatment packages. However, several authors have pointed out that treatment outcomes, while good, are far from perfect. We have recently developed a model of social anxiety that points out how people with social phobia may be different to the average. Based on this model, we can make several predictions for potential improvements to current treatment packages. The current grant seeks to test these improvements. The proposal is to compare people with social phobia who receive a standard treatment package with those who receive this packaged plus the newly predicted components. It is predicted that the addition of these extra components will results in considerably greater improvements in both the short and long terms.Read moreRead less
The Prevention Of Anxiety And Related Disorders: Long Term Follow-up Of Temperamentally At-risk Preschoolers.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$391,476.00
Summary
Anxiety and related disorders such as depression provide a tremendous cost to the individual sufferer and to Australian society. While previous research has focussed on treatment of these conditions, little work has addressed the possibility of preventing these disorders before they interfere with an individual's life. There is growing evidence that children who are shy, withdrawn and inhibited at a very young age are more likely than other children to develop anxiety disorders in later childhoo ....Anxiety and related disorders such as depression provide a tremendous cost to the individual sufferer and to Australian society. While previous research has focussed on treatment of these conditions, little work has addressed the possibility of preventing these disorders before they interfere with an individual's life. There is growing evidence that children who are shy, withdrawn and inhibited at a very young age are more likely than other children to develop anxiety disorders in later childhood and a variety of related disorders in adulthood. In a previous NHMRC-funded grant, we have developed a brief parent education program to modify this personality style in young children. Early results are very promising and it appears that we have been able to help these withdrawn children to become more outgoing. This next proposal aims to follow these children over the coming years to see whether they are also less likely to develop mental health problems than children whose parents have not received the educational program are. We will be observing the children in a laboratory setting and at school at three, yearly intervals. At each point, we will compare withdrawn children whose parents have gone through the education program with those who haven't.Read moreRead less
Epigenetic Impacts Of Paternal Experience On Offspring Anxiety And Cognition: Molecular Mediators And Therapeutic Targets
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$681,162.00
Summary
Stress and physical activity are two of the major lifestyle factors impacting on human health, including brain disorders. We have recently discovered that stress and exercise in male mice can impact the phenotype of offspring. We will study molecules in the sperm of these fathers, and in the brains of offspring to understand the mechanisms involved. There is evidence that lifestyle factors in men prior to conception impact on their children and this research has major public health implications.
A Healthy Start To Life, Preventative Healthcare, Strengthening Australias Social Economic Fabric
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,000,000.00
Summary
The aim is to make a major contribution to the reduction of non-fatal disease burden internationally due to mental disorders and related alcohol and substance abuse through population-based research and development health strategies. Current estimates of avertable burden for mental disorders suggest that while 40% of the burden can be reduced by optimal implementation of currently available interventions another 60% will remain unavertable without new knowledge. That new knowledge includes not o ....The aim is to make a major contribution to the reduction of non-fatal disease burden internationally due to mental disorders and related alcohol and substance abuse through population-based research and development health strategies. Current estimates of avertable burden for mental disorders suggest that while 40% of the burden can be reduced by optimal implementation of currently available interventions another 60% will remain unavertable without new knowledge. That new knowledge includes not only that derived from novel or basic neurosciences but also clear determination as to whether currently proposed early intervention paradigms for young persons with mental disorders deliver sustained benefits. To ensure the maximum benefit for persons with mental disorders, Professor Hickie needs to engage directly in two major streams of activity. The first (75% of research effort) lies in maximising the chances that the health services and other population health activities that he has championed so actively over the last decade are now utilised to both advance knowledge as well as make a much greater contribution to actual reduction in illness burden. The second (25% of research effort) lies in maximising the specific international skills collected within the BMRI and distributed more widely in its local, national and international research networks. Mental Health Research desperately needs new basic science, translational and clinical knowledge and the combination of an Australian Fellowship and these networks would provide the environment for maximising the chances of achieving such real knowledge breakthroughsRead moreRead less