A Review of Published Self-help Books for Panic Disorder
Per Carlbring
1 , Bengt E. Westling 1 and Gerhard Andersson 1,21
Department of Psychology; 2 Department of Audiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala,SwedenThis brief review of 14 self-help books on panic disorder compares: target group, treatment time, included components, existence of structured exercises, and whether or not daily record-keeping is encouraged. Six of the books cover all components deemed necessary for a multimodal cognitive-behavioral treatment package, and five of these are recommended. The reviews are followed by a brief summary of published bibliotherapy studies in which a selection of the books has been used. The results of these studies suggest that bibliotherapy is effective, with an effect size ranging from d = 0.5 to d = 1.5.
Key words: anxiety disorder; bibliotherapy; effect size.
Correspondence address: Per Carlbring, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Box1225, SE-751 42 Uppsala, Sweden. Fax:
/ 46 18 471 2123. E-mail: per.carlbring@psyk.uu.se