Transdiagnostic Approach to Anxiety Disorders: Common Factors and Integrative Interventions

Anxiety disorders hold an important place in both clinical and research studies due to their prevalence and potential to negatively impact individuals' functioning and quality of life. Traditional diagnosis-based intervention approaches target symptoms specific to certain disorders; however, they have significant limitations, such as the prevalence of comorbidity and insufficient consideration of individual differences. Therefore, transdiagnostic approaches, which target cognitive and emotional processes that commonly occur across different disorders, offer a more comprehensive and flexible intervention opportunity. This review addresses the main transdiagnostic mechanisms involved in the onset, development, and maintenance of anxiety disorders, including comprehensively examining rumination, anxiety sensitivity, emotion regulation difficulties, behavioral avoidance, intolerance of uncertainty, perfectionism, cognitive flexibility, psychological flexibility, mindfulness, and self-compassion processes. In line with relevant literature findings, it is understood that the examined transdiagnostic processes are associated with multiple psychopathologies, play a central role in explaining comorbidity patterns, and can provide meaningful improvement in anxiety and accompanying symptoms when targeted for intervention.