Cognitive Enhancement Strategies to Augment Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety and Related Disorders: Rationale and Recommendations for Use With Cognitively Healthy Older Adults

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is widely recognized as an efficacious treatment of anxiety and related disorders-however, recent research suggests that some older adults may derive reduced benefit from CBT as compared to younger adults. Age-related declines in cognition (e.g., memory, attention) may be a contributing factor to the reduced benefit seen in this population. Augmentation strategies for optimizing CBT are now under way (e.g., exercise, medication), and indicate that cognitive support and enhancement strategies can improve both cognitive skills and treatment outcome in anxious older clients. This review discusses the current literature on enhancement strategies that target CBT aptitude directly (e.g., memory aids for therapeutic material) and indirectly (e.g., use of standardized cognitive tasks unrelated to CBT) as methods of augmenting CBT. Recommendations for clinicians and directions for future research are provided.