A promising new treatment for childhood anxiety disorders is Attention-Bias Modification Treatment (ABMT).

 

One of the most common forms of Attention-bias Modification is related to interpretation bias. If an individual is a religious person, they might find themselves being preoccupied with the details of religious teachings, rather than focusing their attention on the overall message. People with bar hair have similar tendencies, as they tend to focus on the words of the passage and less on the meaning of the passage.

Some other mental health disorders are also associated with Attention-bias Modification, such as schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder. In the case of schizophrenia, the patient will have hallucinations and delusions, while in post-traumatic stress disorder patients have high anxiety levels and negative emotions following an extremely traumatic event. The focus of treatment for these conditions is to help the patients learn how to effectively deal with their anxiety without suffering from cognitive bias modifications. However, researchers have shown that learning how to counter these symptoms is important for the mental health of everyone, especially for those who are living with both anxiety and depression. As per the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), around 40 million people in the U.S. aged 18 years and above suffer from anxiety disorders.

Another example of Attention-bias Modification treatment is associated with interpretation bias. This is the tendency to distort information in order to make it fit one's pre-existing mental health model. An example of this can be seen in someone who believes that all death reported in the press is caused by natural causes. While they may have a valid belief in this scenario, this type of distortion is not helpful to their mental health. In the recent past, attention-bias modification treatment app has emerged as new technology to analyze and treat anxiety, stress, and depression. Recently, in December 2018, scientists from Erasmus Medical Center published a report of clinical trials for the investigation of a 9-session web-based attention-bias modification treatment app in a massive sample of anxiety-disordered children.