The most effective therapy for childhood anxiety disorders (CADs), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), leaves more than 50% of youth symptomatic, has yet to demonstrate superiority over treatment as usual, and requires more sessions than is typical in clinical settings. Parent-coached exposure therapy (PCET) is designed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of treatment by focusing on exposure and including parents in all sessions. This study evaluated whether PCET had a greater effect than CBT on secondary outcomes. Participants were 78 predominantly White patients (78% female) ages 7–17 with CADs in a randomized controlled trial that were assigned to PCET or the gold-standard CBT. Data were collected from youth, parents, and independent evaluators (IEs) at pre-, mid- and posttreatment on avoidance, functioning, and treatment response. Across treatment conditions, youth showed improvement on all measures. Compared to those in CBT, participants in PCET demonstrated greater reductions in avoidance (parent- and IE rated), functional impairment (parent rated), and response/remission (IE rated) at midtreatment. Only differences in avoidance remained significant at posttreatment. There were no differences identified in therapeutic alliance. Approximately two thirds of patients had symptoms in the nonanxious range with PCET at posttreatment. Findings suggest that PCET more quickly addresses avoidance and impairment in CADs than current treatment options. These findings build on the primary outcome results, suggesting PCET may offer a more effective and efficient intervention than traditional CBT, without sacrificing therapeutic alliance.
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