Evidence-Based Group Treatments for Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Objective: Anxiety-related disorders such as panic, social anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder are prevalent mental disorders in the general population worldwide. This article summarizes the empirical evidence for the efficacy of group treatments for patients suffering from these disorders. The evidence is contrasted with the consideration of this evidence in the current U.K. and U.S. practice guidelines. Method: A review of the evidence is provided, which is mainly based upon several recent meta-analyses related to the single disorders. Following an overview of the representation of group therapy within guidelines, we also summarize resources for clinicians that were compiled within an international project aiming to provide online information about evidence-based group therapy. Results: The review reveals very solid evidence for the efficacy of group treatments for social anxiety disorders, panic and generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder with a dominance of different approaches based on cognitive behavioral therapy. Meta-analytic results demonstrated that cognitive behavioral therapy groups are superior to no-treatment control conditions (large effects, g > 0.8) and were mainly equivalent to active control conditions. It is shown that the good evidence is almost unreflected in the existing guidelines. Conclusions: There is still a discrepancy between the positive results of group therapy as an effective, equivalent, and economic ("triple E") treatment and its presence in clinical practice. This discrepancy might be explained by some barriers in the health system, insufficient training, missing research related to differential indications, and a clinician-friendly dissemination of research results.