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Lookup NU author(s): Ashley Tiplady, Professor Mark FreestonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Co-morbid mental health diagnoses present challenges for services structured to provide disorder-specific models of treatment, such as NHS Talking Therapies services. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) has been identified as both disorder specific and transdiagnostic, although little research explores transdiagnostic approaches to treatment of IU alone. A transdiagnostic cognitive behavioural therapy treatment targeting IU, the ‘Making Friends with Uncertainty’ (MFWU) group, was developed and piloted in a Talking Therapies primary care service in an earlier evaluation (Mofrad et al., 2020). The aim of this study was to replicate and further evaluate the intervention. Twenty people presenting with a range of anxiety disorders started the intervention in two groups. The study used a single group, within-subjects quasi-experimental design, collecting data at eight points for routine outcome measures of anxiety, depression and functioning, and five points for measures of anxiety disorder-specific symptoms and IU. Intention-to-treat analyses showed improvement on a general measure of anxiety as well as improvement on the measure of IU. Significantly there was improvement on the disorder specific measures even though the intervention was aimed at the underlying process of IU, rather than the particular symptoms targeted by these measures. The MFWU group may be an efficient and effective way to deliver a highly specified transdiagnostic intervention for intolerance of uncertainty when people are treated in a mixed group format.
Author(s): Mofrad L, Hall D, Tiplady A, Freeston MH
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist
Year: 2025
Volume: 18
Online publication date: 04/09/2025
Acceptance date: 18/06/2025
Date deposited: 10/09/2025
ISSN (electronic): 1754-470X
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1754470X25100202
DOI: 10.1017/S1754470X25100202
Data Access Statement: Raw data were generated at Talking Helps Newcastle (Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust). Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available in Newcastle University research repository (ncl.ac.uk) at https://doi/10.25405/data.ncl.27004456
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