Centre For Clinical Research Excellence In Anxiety And Neuroscience
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,007,200.00
Summary
This Centre will bring together Australia's leading anxiety and neuroscience researchers to develop, evaluate, and disseminate better treatments of anxiety. Epidemiological studies indicate that anxiety disorders are common, with lifetime prevalence estimated to be as high as 15% (1). These disorders share the features of excessive physiological arousal in response to feared stimuli, and this leads to pervasive avoidance that has a debilitating impact on people's lives. In addition, anxiety is o ....This Centre will bring together Australia's leading anxiety and neuroscience researchers to develop, evaluate, and disseminate better treatments of anxiety. Epidemiological studies indicate that anxiety disorders are common, with lifetime prevalence estimated to be as high as 15% (1). These disorders share the features of excessive physiological arousal in response to feared stimuli, and this leads to pervasive avoidance that has a debilitating impact on people's lives. In addition, anxiety is often present as a co-morbid feature of other major disorders, such as schizophrenia, substance use, and depression. Anxiety is one of the world's major health burdens; it costs $44 billion per year in the United States. Health agencies around the world are now putting unprecedented resources into understanding the neural bases of anxiety and its reduction. Building on recent advances in the neuroscience of anxiety, the Centre will expand the capacity for neurotransmitter modulation during therapy to reduce anxiety disorders. By extensive training programs with community clinicians, the Centre will conduct large-scale community trials to assess effectiveness of new approaches. The Centre will foster a new generation of neuroscience researchers and clinicians who are skilled in translating basic science findings into clinical practice.Read moreRead less
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
Anxiety and depression are common during early- to mid-adulthood and a major cause of disability. Few studies track individuals over this age range or assess how their experience of anxiety/depression affects them at midlife when many of life’s work, family and personal achievements coalesce. The PATH to Midlife project extends an existing community survey to understand the patterns of anxiety and depression from early to mid-adulthood and identify the personal, social and economic consequences.
The Mental Health Of School-Age Children Who Stutter
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$154,781.00
Summary
Children who stutter face considerable social disadvantages and negative consequences. Adults who stutter have been found to report a significant rate of mental health disorders, yet virtually nothing is known about the presence of such problems in children who stutter. This study will evaluate the prevalence and impact of mental disorders among school-age children who stutter. This research is essential for the provision of adequate speech and psychological treatments for children who stutter.
The Impact Of Befriending On Depression, Anxiety, Social Support And Loneliness In Older Adults Living In Residential Aged Care Facilities
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$661,872.00
Summary
About half of people living in residential aged care facilities may have significant depression symptoms. Many residents are socially isolated in RACFs even though they are in communal living, and social isolation is a contributor to depression. We propose a trial of befriending which is emotional and social support from trained volunteers. Volunteers will be trained using Beyondblue resources and a manual developed by the investigators.
Increasing The Efficacy Of Treatment For Socially Anxious Youth Through Theoretically Derived Improvements
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$971,747.00
Summary
Social anxiety has a severe impact on young people. Although we have good treatments for most anxious youth, those with social anxiety show the least change. The proposed project will evaluate the benefits of a new treatment for socially anxious young people based on current understanding of the causes of this disorder. The new treatment will have better effects than traditional therapy and will lead to increased knowledge of the causes of this disorder.
Randomised Trial Of An Innovative Treatment For Early Stuttering.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$482,568.00
Summary
Stuttering begins early in life and has destructive effects on human development. These include failure to attain occupational potential and psychiatric illness. This project is a clinical trial to compare a new treatment with best practice. The new treatment has many potential benefits. It is simpler and may take less time, and can be used more easily by clinicians.
Internet-Based Treatment For Social Anxiety In Stuttering.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$721,808.00
Summary
Debilitating social anxiety is common in stutering. Cognitive behaviour therapy can successfully treat the social anxiety of those who stutter. However, at present the clinical translation of that advance is not possible. The team has developed a solution to this problem with computerised, internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy. The clinical trial in this research has potential to translate the clinical advance to millions of people who stutter worldwide..
Randomised Controlled Trial Of A Financial Counselling Intervention And Smoking Cessation Assistance To Reduce Smoking In Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Groups
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,029,662.00
Summary
Socioeconomically disadvantaged groups are more likely to smoke than other sectors of the community. This difference has been attributed, in part, to increased rates of relapse. Relapse is strongly and consistently predicted by financial stress. This project attempts to reduce relapse by reducing financial stress among disadvantaged smokers through the provision of financial counselling as an adjunct to NRT.