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Overcome Death Anxiety: The Development of an Online Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Programme for Fears of Death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2021

Rachel E. Menzies Open the ORCID record for Rachel E. Menzies [Opens in a new window] ,
Louise Sharpe ,
Fjóla Dögg Helgadóttir  and
Ilan Dar-Nimrod
Rachel E. Menzies*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW2006, Australia
Louise Sharpe
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW2006, Australia
Fjóla Dögg Helgadóttir
Affiliation:
AI Therapy, Vancouver, Canada
Ilan Dar-Nimrod
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW2006, Australia
*
*Corresponding author: Rachel E. Menzies, School of Psychology, Brennan MacCallum Building (A18), The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW2006, Australia. Email: rachel.menzies@sydney.edu.au
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Abstract

Emerging research suggests that death anxiety is a transdiagnostic construct, which may underpin a number of mental illnesses. Although cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) has been found to be the most effective treatment for death anxiety, no self-guided treatments for this construct exist at present. Furthermore, there is a growing need for accessible, scalable and cost-effective psychological treatments. To address these gaps, we created Overcome Death Anxiety (ODA), an online CBT-based programme which specifically targets fears of death. ODA was designed to be a fully automated, standalone, yet individualised online treatment. The present study outlines the development and structure of this programme using responses from four users to illustrate feasibility. Research is needed to examine the efficacy and usability of ODA with a larger clinical sample.

Keywords

death anxietytransdiagnosticonlineinternetcognitive behaviour therapyCBTinterventiontreatment
Type
Standard Paper
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 235 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy

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