Dr. Robyn L. Shepardson, PhD

Anxiety Skills Training

for Anxiety

Anxiety symptoms are common among primary care patients, but anxiety is undertreated. Brief behavioral (non-medication) anxiety treatments are needed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a brief anxiety treatment designed for VA primary care is more effective at reducing anxiety symptoms and impairment in Veterans compared to usual care. The brief anxiety treatment, Veterans Anxiety Skills Training (VAST), was designed to be evidence-based (emphasis on cognitive-behavioral skills), transdiagnostic (applicable to a wide range of anxiety symptoms), feasible for integrated primary care (no more than 6 brief \[30-minute\] sessions), and Veteran-centered (tailored to Veterans and personalized to individual patients). A total of 170 adult Veteran primary care patients from the Syracuse and Western New York VA healthcare systems who are experiencing anxiety symptoms will be recruited and randomly assigned to receive the brief anxiety treatment or usual care. The investigators will compare anxiety symptom severity and functional impairment between the two groups at baseline and at post-assessment (at 16 weeks) and follow-up assessment (at 28 weeks). The investigators will also examine predictors of treatment response among those receiving VAST and whether providers deliver VAST as intended.