The Anxiety Program: A randomized controlled trial of internet based education for Anxiety

Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) an immediate education group, or; 2) a delayed education group AKA waitlist control group(beginnning the program 9 weeks after the immediate education group begin). All participants will meet Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition (DSM-IV) criteria for social phobia and/or panic disorder (with or without agoraphobia) and/or generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). All participants will complete 6 lessons of Internet based education about management of symptoms of anxiety. One lesson will be completed every 7 to 10 days. Each lesson will take about 15 minutes to complete. Participants will also have access to summaries of each lesson, and will read anonymous stories about other people with anxiety, taking a further 20 minutes per summary. All participants will also receive automatic email and weekly reminder phone calls by a research assistant, and have access to a research team-moderated online forum discussing content of the program. The duration of the reminder emails/phone calls and contribution to the forum is expected to be 5-10 minutes. The duration of the program is 9 weeks, but participants will be contacted 3 months post program and asked to complete follow-up questionnaires. Study questionnaires will be administered at application, pre-education, post-education, and at 3-months post-education. These will take about 20-30 minutes to complete. The educational materials are based on the Shyness, Panic and Worry Programs, which apply cognitive behavioural techniques.