Psychological intervention

Macroeconomics

Depression (economics)

Panic disorder

Psychiatry

Agoraphobia

Economics

Anxiety

Psychology

Generalized anxiety disorder

Psychotherapist

Quality of life (healthcare)

Meta-analysis

Internal medicine

Social anxiety

Intervention (counseling)

Medicine

Clinical psychology

Borderline personality disorder

Clinical Psychology Review

Recent advances in clinical practice emphasise transdiagnostic interventions as an effective alternative to single disorder approaches. This current systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the treatment efficacy of the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP) across internalising disorders, as an emotion regulation (ER) based intervention program. Across 15 studies and 1244 participants, large effect size reductions were found across symptoms of anxiety, depression, generalised anxiety disorder , obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder with/without agoraphobia , social anxiety disorder , and borderline personality disorder. In addition, there were moderate effect sizes indicating increased use of adaptive and decreased use of maladaptive ER strategies, highlighting the UP as an effective ER based intervention. Secondary treatment benefits in functional impairment and quality of life were also evident. Implications on future transdiagnostic ER based research are discussed. • The Unified Protocol (UP) is associated with large effect size improvements for internalising disorders. • For anxiety and depression, persistence of gains at 6 month follow-up were evident. • The UP associated with increased use of adaptive and decreased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. • The UP associated with improvements in functional impairment and quality of life.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the Unified Protocol as a transdiagnostic emotion regulation based intervention