Open AccessDoes the unified protocol really change neuroticism? Results from a randomized trial
Author(s) -
Shan SauerZavala,
Jay C. Fournier,
Stephanie Jarvi Steele,
Brittany K. Woods,
Mengxing Wang,
Todd J. Farchione,
David H. Barlow
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
psychological medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.857
H-Index - 209
eISSN - 1469-8978
pISSN - 0033-2917
DOI - 10.1017/s0033291720000975
Subject(s) - neuroticism , anxiety , clinical psychology , psychological intervention , psychology , randomized controlled trial , depression (economics) , psychiatry , medicine , personality , social psychology , economics , macroeconomics
Neuroticism is associated with the onset and maintenance of a number of mental health conditions, as well as a number of deleterious outcomes (e.g. physical health problems, higher divorce rates, lost productivity, and increased treatment seeking); thus, the consideration of whether this trait can be addressed in treatment is warranted. To date, outcome research has yielded mixed results regarding neuroticism's responsiveness to treatment, perhaps due to the fact that study interventions are typically designed to target disorder symptoms rather than neuroticism itself. The purpose of the current study was to explore whether a course of treatment with the unified protocol (UP), a transdiagnostic intervention that was explicitly developed to target neuroticism, results in greater reductions in neuroticism compared to gold-standard, symptom focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) protocols and a waitlist (WL) control condition.