Research groups
Colleges
David M Clark
DPhil CBE FBA FMedSci FAcSS HonFBPs
Professor and Chair of Experimental Psychology
- NIHR Senior Investigator
- Fellow of Magdalen College
- Associate Head for Impact
Social Anxiety Disorder and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Cognitive Processes and Treatments
Research Summary
My research mainly focuses on cognitive approaches to the understanding and treatment of anxiety disorders. My team uses a closely integrated programme of experimental and clinical studies. The general strategy has been to: (i) use clinical interviews and cognitive psychology paradigms to identify the core cognitive abnormality in an anxiety disorder; (ii) to construct a theoretical account which explains why the cognitive abnormality does not self-correct; (iii) test the hypothesised maintaining factors in rigorous experimental studies; (iv) develop specialised cognitive treatments which aim to reverse the maintaining factors; (v) test the efficacy of the treatments in randomised controlled trials.
The research has led to the development of new and effective cognitive therapy programmes for three different anxiety disorders: panic disorder, social phobia and posttraumatic stress disorder, each of which are recommended first line treatment options in current NICE guidelines.
A further strand of my research has focused on how to disseminate the new treatments so they can be made available to as many people as possible. The first major dissemination project focussed on training clinicians in cognitive therapy for PTSD in order to provide effective treatment services for victims of bombs in Omagh and London. The second project is the English Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme that aims to train an extra 6,000 new psychological therapists by 2015 and deploy them in specialist services for anxiety disorders and depression. I have been involved with the programme since its inception and am currently the National Clinical and Informatics Advisor. A third project involves developing and evaluating internet versions of the treatments.
A broad overview of my work can be found in Layard & Clark's (2014) Thrive (Penguin).
Recent publications
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Delivering Cognitive Therapy for adolescent Social Anxiety Disorder in NHS CAMHS: a qualitative analysis of the experiences of young people, their parents and clinicians-in-training.
Journal article
CRESWELL C. et al, (2021), Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy
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Cognitive predictors of adolescent social anxiety.
Journal article
Chiu K. et al, (2020), Behav Res Ther, 137
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Prospective associations between peer functioning and social anxiety in adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Journal article
Chiu K. et al, (2020), J Affect Disord, 279, 650 - 661
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Are young people with primary social anxiety disorder less likely to recover following generic CBT compared to young people with other primary anxiety disorders? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Journal article
Evans R. et al, (2020), Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy
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Assessing panic disorder-specific competencies: evaluation of the Cognitive Therapy Competence Scale for panic disorder.
Journal article
Liness S. et al, (2020), Behav Cogn Psychother, 1 - 9