Attention Training: Effects on Anxiety and Beliefs in Panic and Social Phobia

This study tested the effectiveness of a new cognitive technique involving attention training. A single case systematic replication series (Sidman, 1960) was used to replicate and extend previous findings. In particular the effects of attention training on panic frequency, general anxiety, and beliefs was investigated across two panic disorder cases and one social phobia case, and across different therapists, and settings. A true reversal design was used in one of the cases. In this case attention training was followed by an attentional manipulation incompatible with the hypothesized effects of attention training so that the effects of attention training on target problems could be clearly evaluated on its re-introduction. The results are consistent with those of a previous study (Wells, 1990) and provide preliminary evidence that panic attacks, anxiety and beliefs can be effectively and lastingly reduced by cognitive techniques which do not directly target the content of negative appraisal. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.