Symposium 7 - Enhancing Reward Processing to Improve Treatment Outcomes for Anxiety and Depression

Chair(s)

• AW

  Allison Waters, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Professor
  Griffith University
  Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Discussant(s)

• 

  Michelle Craske, Ph.D.

  Distinguished Professor
  University of California Los Angeles
  Los Angeles, California, United States

Presenter(s)

• AW

  Allison Waters, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Professor
  Griffith University
  Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• AW

  Aleeza West, B.A. (she/her/hers)

  Lab Manager
  University of California, Los Angeles
  Los Angeles, California, United States
• 

  Brooke Cullen, M.A. (she/her/hers)

  Post-baccalaureate Research Assistant
  University of California, Los Angeles
  Los Angeles, California, United States
• CT

  Charles Taylor, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  Professor
  University of California, San Diego
  La Jolla, California, United States

Anxiety and depression are debilitating and costly mental health problems with prevalence rates rising around the world. Cognitive and behavioural therapies (CBTs) that primarily target threat sensitivity and negative valence systems are first line psychological treatments for these disorders, yet many individuals do not respond or are likely to relapse after successful treatment. Interventions that engage the positive valence system may be efficacious alternatives and improve outcomes for individuals who do not respond to CBTs.

This symposium includes four presentations that demonstrate beneficial effects from interventions and strategies that target reward-based mechanisms in the treatment of anxiety and depression. The first presentation reports on a study that used a novel experimental design from prior research in which participants with elevated social anxiety and anhedonia completed a decision-making task before and after receiving therapy to enhance reward processing or relaxation (control). The second presentation reports three studies on the development and evaluation of Virtual Reality-Reward Training (VR-RT), a reward-focused intervention integrating immersive virtual reality environments with guided recounting of rewarding autobiographical and virtual experiences to address deficits in reward processing underlying anhedonia. The third presentation reports on a large-scale, nationwide randomized controlled non-inferiority trial to evaluate whether a brief 3-week computer-delivered intervention (positive search training) designed to increase attention to positive, goal-relevant stimuli and inhibit attention to goal-irrelevant threat distractors is non-inferior to best-practice CBT for children with anxiety disorders. The fourth presentation reports on the amplification of positivity to improve social disconnection in adults with anxiety and depressive disorders by increasing exposure and responsiveness to positive events, practicing gratitude, and engaging in kind acts towards others.

Presenters include early career, mid-career and experienced researchers working with research teams around the world to develop, evaluate and disseminate treatments to reduce the burden of anxiety and depressive disorders. By drawing on her extensive expertise in underlying mechanisms of anxiety and depression and unique experience developing, evaluating and disseminating interventions targeting the positive valence system, the discussant will highlight key issues, current challenges and future opportunities in enhancing reward processing to improve outcomes for people suffering from anxiety and depressive disorders.

Presentations:

• 9:06 AM - 9:27 AM PDT

  (SYM 7) Examining the Efficacy of Positive Search Training as a Treatment for Childhood Anxiety Disorders: A Nationwide, Non-inferiority Trial
  

  Speaker: Allison Waters, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Griffith University

  Co-Author: Rachel Sluis, PhD – Griffith University

  Co-Author: Katherine Ryan, PhD – Griffith University

  Co-Author: Caroline Donovan, PhD (she/her/hers) – Griffith University

  Co-Author: Lara Farrell, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Griffith University

  Co-Author: Melanie Zimmer-Gembeck, PhD (she/her/hers) – Griffith University

  Co-Author: Michelle G. Craske, Ph.D. – University of California Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Robert Ware, PhD – Griffith University
• 9:27 AM - 9:48 AM PDT

  (SYM 7) Computational Modeling to Connect Decision Making Under Uncertainty with Reward Processing and Anxiety
  

  Speaker: Aleeza West, B.A. (she/her/hers) – University of California, Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Brooke Cullen, M.A. (she/her/hers) – University of California, Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Michelle G. Craske, Ph.D. – University of California Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Tomislav Zbozinek, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of California, Los Angeles
• 9:48 AM - 10:09 AM PDT

  (SYM 7) Improving Well-being Through Reward Training: Virtual Reality as an Emerging Tool
  

  Speaker: Brooke Cullen, M.A. (she/her/hers) – University of California, Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Aleeza West, B.A. (she/her/hers) – University of California, Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Christina F. Sandman, Ph.D. – University of California Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Julia Yarrington, M.A. (she/her/hers) – UCLA

  Co-Author: Brett Davis, M.A. – University of California Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Mason Mcclay, PhD (he/him/his) – University Of California, Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Courtney Forbes, PhD (she/her/hers) – UCLA

  Co-Author: Christina M. Hough, Ph.D. – University of California Los Angeles

  Co-Author: Michelle G. Craske, Ph.D. – University of California Los Angeles
• 10:09 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

  (SYM 7) Amplifying Positivity to Combat Social Disconnection in Anxiety and Depressive Disorders: A Cognitive Behavioral Experimental Therapeutics Approach
  

  Speaker: Charles T. Taylor, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of California, San Diego