Models of Sleep Disturbance in Primary Insomnia and Major Depressive Disorder

White et al (1990, 1992, 1995 and 1998) have shown the efifectiveness of large-scale didactic Anxiety Management (AM) groups for the treatment of Generalised Anxiety Disorder. This study investigated factors that may affect attendance and outcome at such groups. The sample consisted of 95 patients (taken from three AM groups), referred to the Department of Clinical Psychology with a primary anxiety disorder, who had agreed to attend an AM group. Information was collected on duration of problem, motivation to attend the group and expectations about outcome. Patients were also given an ICD-10 diagnosis of a primary anxiety disorder. The results indicated that, in general, few individuals completed treatment and only one individual showed any clinically significant change. The diagnosis of Social Phobia was shown to affect whether a patient completed treatment. Duration of problem was also shown to affect attendance and completion. The effectiveness and efficiency of large-scale didactic AM groups is discussed