Anxiety Disorders and Symptoms

This study aims to assess a mobile app called MAYA for use in middle-aged and older adults with anxiety or mood disorders. The MAYA app is designed to teach coping skills for anxiety and depression that are drawn from cognitive behavioral therapy. Participants will be asked to use the app for at least two days a week, 20 minutes on each day, for six weeks. Participants will have weekly check-ins as well as longer assessments at the beginning of the study, week 3, week 6 (end of treatment), and week 12 (follow up). During assessments, participants will answer brief questionnaires designed to assess their symptoms and impressions of the app. The main hypotheses of the study are that participants will complete most of the assigned sessions and that they will rate their impressions of the app highly. The secondary hypotheses are that symptoms of depression and anxiety will decrease with use of the MAYA app.

This study aims to compare the effectiveness of a standard mobile cognitive behavioral therapy program to a personalized mobile cognitive behavioral therapy program that introduces new skills over a shorter period of time. Participants will use the Maya app for two days per week, at least 20 minutes per day, for six weeks. Assessments will include a weekly check in with a member of the research team, questionnaires, and optional electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings at the beginning and end of the 6-week intervention. The investigators think that that the less burdensome personalized program will be just as effective at improving symptoms of anxiety and depression as the general program.

This project addresses the disproportionate morbidity and mortality associated with mental and behavioral health problems in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Access to culturally competent and effective behavioral health services is limited in many of these communities. The investigators aim to address this gap by testing the effectiveness of a trans-diagnostic secondary prevention program, Family Spirit Strengths (FSS) that can be embedded within home visiting services. The FSS program is a skills-based program that incorporates elements of evidence-based practice, the Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA), and materials informed and developed based on an Indigenous advisory group. The FSS program aims to help participants build self-efficacy and coping skills, as well as build stronger connections to others, the participants' community, and cultural resources. The investigators will use a randomized controlled trial, whereby half of the participants will receive FSS and the other half will receive an evidence-based nutrition education program. The investigators' study is grounded in participatory processes and led by a team of Indigenous and allied researchers.

This study will examine the effects of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) group therapy on adults who experienced the April 2025 Silivri earthquake in Turkey. Participants will be randomly assigned to either an EMDR intervention group or a waitlist control group. Psychological symptoms will be measured using the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Quantitative EEG (QEEG) recordings will also be collected before and after the intervention to assess changes in brain activity related to emotional regulation and trauma processing. The goal of the study is to evaluate whether EMDR produces both clinical and neurophysiological improvements in trauma-exposed individuals.

Herbal Medicine is known as the medicinal use of herbal substances as a means of treating different conditions in the human body to ensure that the body remains in optimal health and wellness. These substances are known to contain very active ingredients in it and as such is also a very potent means of managing diseases and ailments in the body. Herbal medicine has always been a standby source of getting relief from various conditions over centuries, however, it can be categorically said that the mode of usage of these herbal substances has changed over time. Traditional healers help individuals to make meaning out of the natural herbs seen around that can be useful to one's health. Herbal medicine is the use of plants to treat disease and enhance general health and wellbeing. Herbs can interact with other pharmaceutical medications and should be taken with care. Always seek a regular medical doctor (GP) about any health concerns and tell them about any herbal medicines you are taking or thinking of taking. Never stop taking prescribed medications in favor of herbs without first discussing it with your GP.

This study will aim to test whether specific neural circuitry changes, proposed on the basis of a neurocognitive model of anxiety, are a mechanism of action for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) interventions. This study aims to provide a theoretical model of the neurobiological mechanisms of CBT's therapeutic effect, where there currently is none, and potentially allow for more targeted/specific approaches to anxiety disorders following the identification of key CBT mechanisms. The ultimate aim is to improve the efficacy of CBT, and more generally, psychological interventions for anxiety disorders.

Adolescence is a critical period for the onset and maintenance of anxiety disorders, which raises the importance of intervening early; one possibility of doing so is via digital interventions. At least two lines of research have been explored in the past years in this area. First, studies have tested the anxiolytic effects of casual video games, hypothesizing that, through the induction of flow, these games can effectively distract individuals from anxiety-related thoughts and feelings. Second, the bidirectional link between poor attentional control and higher anxiety has led to the design of novel interventions aiming to improve attentional control such as working memory training studies. Importantly, action video games, classified as a distinct gaming genre, have been shown to enhance attentional control. In this study, we aim to compare the effects of action video game play and casual game play to a no-training group, assessing their potential to alleviate anxiety when delivered entirely online. The goal of this three- arms randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the feasibility of a 6-week video game training intervention to reduce adolescent anxiety-related symptoms. We will also examine the efficacy of the proposed treatment when entirely deployed at adolescents' home.