A preliminary examination of unified protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders in patients with panic disorder: a single-case experimental design in Iran

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives

The majority of patients suffering from anxiety disorders in low- and middle-income countries do not receive evidence-based treatments. The Unified Protocol (UP) for the Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders is an evidence-based cognitive–behavioral intervention designed to treat the range of emotional disorders.

Design and Methods

Using a single-case experimental design five patients with panic disorder were assigned to a 3-week baselines assessment phase followed by eight sessions of UP treatment and 4-week follow-up phases. Multiple outcome measures of panic severity, anxiety sensitivity, affectivity, and overall anxiety severity and impairment were administered weekly during the baseline, intervention, and follow-up phases.

Results

At post treatment, all participants showed significant reductions in outcome measures, with changes functionally related to treatment and most improvements maintained at 4-week follow-up.

Conclusion

Findings provide preliminary cross-cultural support for UP and add to the growing body of literature showing UP can be useful for patients with anxiety disorders in low- and middle-income countries with non-Western cultures.

KEYWORDS:

• Unified protocol
• transdiagnostic treatment
• anxiety disorders
• panic disorder
• single case

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to all participants in the research and all those who have facilitated the implementation of the research.

Compliance with ethical standards

Ethical approval: All procedures performed in this studies were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Study was registered in the Iranian Registery of Clinical Trials (IRCT) and all study procedures were approved by the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences’ ethics committee coded as MUK.REC.1394.309.

Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.