Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a chronic, difficulty-to-treat condition characterized by excessive worry and anxiety. Given that a substantial proportion of individuals do not benefit from the best treatments, it is imperative to develop better interventions. One promising intervention is imaginal exposure (IE), in which individuals allow themselves to fully experience and process clear, vivid thoughts of their worst fear coming true (e.g., losing one’s job and having to go on welfare). IE for GAD has been modified into a written exposure procedure, where individuals write about their worst fears coming true. There is considerable evidence that GAD symptoms (e.g. worry) can improve after only 3-5 written exposure sessions of 15-20 minutes each. However, we still know very little about how best to conduct written IE with people with GAD; the mechanisms of exposure; and the degree to which the benefits endure. The proposed novel experiment addresses these issues, using a theory- and empirically-derived approach. The proposed study will examine the degree to which it is more beneficial for individuals with GAD to engage in writing for 20 minutes per day, over 3 days about a worst fear coming true (Consistent exposure, e.g., getting fired at work, and then losing everything) compared to writing about a feared event occurring unexpectedly (Emotional Contrast Exposure, e.g., things going well at work, and then unexpectedly getting fired and losing everything). It is expected that emotional contrast exposure will be more efficacious in reducing GAD symptoms than will consistent exposure. This study may help answer important questions about optimal treatment targets for people with GAD and improve the therapeutic value of exposure for GAD.