Programa de Intervención Cognitivo Conductual para la Ansiedad en las personas con Trastornos del Espectro del Autismo

Autistic students often experience anxiety disorders (AT). The presence of high levels of distress in postsecondary students, coupled with real or perceived barriers to accessing support services, highlights the need for brief, evidence-based, student-accessible interventions. As such, a modified brief MBCT intervention was implemented to help reduce anxiety in students with autism. A total of 12 self-selected students (aged 21-27 years) with clinically significant anxiety were assigned to one of three groups: two intervention groups: ASD/autistic traits+ anxiety, an anxiety group, and a control group. The pilot study consisted of three phases of baseline data collection (pretest), intervention implementation, and follow-up data collection (posttest). The SCAARED results showed significant differences between the two groups in the Generalized Anxiety factor (GSD [(F(1,9)=6.98, p=.03, η2=.44, Power .65)] and in the Total Anxiety score (Total [(F(1,9)=6.94, p=.02, η2=.43, Power .65)], although in some factors it was not significant (p<.05), but close to significance. These differences also held for treatment effects. Qualitatively interpreted GAD-7 results indicated that individuals in both groups moved from severe and moderate to mild levels. The results of the mixed ANOVA for the FFMQ and its five facets showed that the main effect of time at two-time points for each of the five total FFMQ mindfulness ability scores was not significant (P<0.05). Likewise, the results also did not point to a significant difference between the groups (P<0.05). The feasibility of the program is discussed, as well as the implications and future directions of this line of research.