Positive Affect Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Low Positive Affect

Does positive affect treatment (PAT) engage reward mechanisms more than negative affect treatment (NAT), and do intervention-specific mechanisms mediate clinical status in adults with depression, anxiety, and low positive affect?In this randomized clinical trial of 98 adults, PAT produced greater improvements in clinical status than NAT. Of 7 self-reported reward and threat measures, 6 mediated clinical outcomes, whereas behavioral and physiological measures did not.Modulation of reward and threat processing, indexed by self-reported measures, may represent a shared mechanism of therapeutic improvement, with a reward-focused intervention yielding superior clinical status.

Corresponding Authors: Alicia E. Meuret, PhD, Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, PO Box 750442, Dallas, TX 75275 (ameuret@smu.edu); Michelle G. Craske, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90077 (mcraske@mednet.ucla.edu).

Link to the article in your story

We encourage you to link out to this article in your story using the link below. It includes an access token that will give free access to the article for your readers up to one year after publication. (The link will be live after the article publishes and embargo is lifted.)

Please see the article for additional information, including full author list, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Need more information? Contact us.