Developing a Low-Intensity Primary Care Intervention for Anxiety Disorders (AIM-PC)

The primary goals of our 3-year, 2-phase project are to develop AIM for primary care linkage and assess its feasibility and acceptability. This protocol description only pertains to Phase 2 (Randomized Controlled Trial).

42 primary care patients with primary Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and/or Panic Disorder (with or without Agoraphobia) will be randomly assigned to the AIM treatment or to a symptom tracking control group. Full assessments will occur pre- and post-treatment and 3-months follow-up. A mid-treatment assessment will include measures of cognitive biases and the primary outcome. Weekly measures of anxiety and depression will be collected, as will feedback from patients and PCPs about the research and delivery procedures.

Inclusion criteria

Study site patient Age ≥18 Primary diagnosis of Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), Social Phobia (SP), and/or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia (PD/A) At least moderate anxiety severity (GAD-7 score > 10) English-speaking If on psychopharmacotherapy, stable dose for 3 months; to minimize learning effects, patients taking benzodiazepines will complete AIM prior to their first dose of the day No current psychotherapy No current severe psychiatric symptoms requiring immediate attention (e.g., imminent suicidality, psychosis)