Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder ─ Therapist Guides and Patient Manual

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterised by excessive anxiety and worry about everyday concerns such as work, family, relationships, finances, health, and safety. The worry is difficult to control; it lasts months and years rather than hours or days, and is accompanied by a variety of additional symptoms including restlessness, irritability, fatigue, muscle tension, and difficulties concentrating and sleeping. The worry and anxiety in GAD is distressing and disabling. People who worry in a maladaptive way benefit from good, proactive treatment, and that is the focus of this book.

It begins by tracing the history of GAD. It then looks at the effectiveness of pharmacological and psychological treatments and favours the latter. In chapter 4, contemporary models of GAD are listed and new developments in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) are explored. This chapter may be particularly applicable to the difficult-to-get-better patient. A clinician's guide to treatment is then presented which covers assessment, formulation, and the beneficial and problematic steps in CBT. Finally there is a patients' treatment manual that can be used as a curriculum for individual or group therapy, or it can be copied and provided to patients to work though on their own.

'Treatment of generalized anxiety disorder' is a short, accessible, and practical guide for any therapist who has to deal with this debilitating problem.

Gavin Andrews, Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, University of New South Wales at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney,Alison E. Mahoney,Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, University of New South Wales at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney,Megan J. Hobbs,Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, University of New South Wales at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney,Margo Genderson,Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, University of New South Wales at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney

Gavin Andrews AO MD is Professor of Psychiatry at UNSW at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. His Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD) is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders in adults. CRUfAD provides treatment services to more than 5,000 people a year, both in the clinic and over the web. His principal research interests are in population mental health, the relation between physical and mental disorders, and in the internet treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders. He is on the ISI Most Highly cited list in Psychology/Psychiatry with more than 33,000 citation to his work.


Dr Mahoney completed her undergraduate and doctoral degrees at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She is the senior clinical psychologist at the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD) at St Vincent's Hospital, and is a Conjoint Lecturer at the University of New South Wales. For the last 12 years, Dr Mahoney has been working with adults experiencing anxiety and depressive disorders, and conducting clinically-orientated research in this area. She is particularly interested in the assessment and treatment of transdiagnostic cognitive and behavioural processes that are thought to maintain anxiety and depressive disorders, including intolerance of uncertainty, cognitive and behavioural avoidance, and repetitive negative thinking.


Dr Hobbs holds a Juris Doctorate from the Australian National University and a Ph.D in Psychiatry from the University of New South Wales. She is currently a Lecturer at the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, St Vincent's Hospital. Her research attempts to bridge the gaps that exist between the classification, epidemiology and treatment of anxiety and depression. For instance, she has examined questions such as: "Why do only some people experience mental disorders? Does mental illness manifest differently across the lifespan? What policy reforms are necessary to increase the coverage and effectiveness of mental healthcare?"


Dr. Genderson received her B.A. from Emory University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Boston University. She completed her clinical internship at the Baltimore VA Medical Center prior to joining the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD) at St Vincent's Hospital. Dr. Genderson is currently in a private practice where she provides empirically supported individual and group psychotherapy to adolescents and adults. She has a broad range of clinical expertise, and her primary interests are in the treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders, trauma, and suicidality.