A ground-breaking approach to treating childhood and adolescent anxiety disorders, based on University of Queensland (UQ) research, will soon be available to families in the UK, US and Europe.
This follows a licence deal struck by UQ's main commercialisation company UniQuest with global online healthcare company CCBT Limited.
The aptly named BRAVE-ONLINE (Brave) psychological intervention, which encourages children and adolescents to be brave in the face of anxiety or concerns that might lead to anxiety, originated from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy research undertaken within UQ's School of Psychology.
CCBT Limited has licensed the program to complement its existing suite of mental health online services, including FearFighterTM, which is currently the only online anxiety treatment endorsed by the UK's National Institute of Clinical Excellence.
UniQuest Managing Director, David Henderson, said the licensing agreement demonstrated how a commercialisation pathway could make it possible for UQ research to have a profound impact on family life around the world.
“Anxiety disorders represent the most prevalent reasons why children and adolescents need psychological help, so partnering the Brave research team with a world-leading company such as CCBT, which has an established presence within the online healthcare sector, is a major milestone,” Mr Henderson said.
Lead researcher, Professor Sue Spence, said as many as two thirds of children who experience anxiety may not be getting the help they need.
“There are various reasons why attending therapy sessions is not possible for these children; however, advances in computer technology have opened up new opportunities for families to access psychological services via the internet,” Professor Spence said.
“The research shows that Brave is just as effective for treating anxiety with an online therapist as with face-to-face sessions.”
Nicholas Niziolomski, CEO of CCBT Limited, said online cognitive behavioural therapies allowed treatment to be provided to a far greater volume of people, around the clock, and with greater cost effectiveness, but they need to be clinically effective to attract the support of national health services, health insurance providers, healthcare professionals, and community organisations.
“The fact that Brave has the strongest evidence-base of any online anxiety intervention for children in the world was a key factor in our decision to enter into the licensing partnership,” Mr Niziolomski said.
“Programs like Brave give families more options for accessing treatment, governments a more cost-effective model for delivering wide-scale services, and healthcare providers more support for achieving positive outcomes for their patients and clients. That's why Brave fits so well with our range of our range of evidence-based treatments and eHealth services.”
CCBT Limited has already engaged in trials of Brave with the UK's National Health Service, while a fourth Randomised Control Trial will be starting soon.
The licence is exclusive to the UK, Europe and the USA; however further details of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Ends
Note: Brave was developed by a team of researchers whilst employed by UQ's School of Psychology; the core team members are currently working at other research institutions.
Media enquiries: Leanne Wyvill, 61 7 3365 4037, 0409 767 199 or l.wyvill@uniquest.com.au
Commercial enquiries: Joe McLean +61 7 3365 4037 or j.mclean@uniquest.com.au
About BRAVE-ONLINE
BRAVE ONLINE is designed for children and adolescents experiencing Separation Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Specific Phobia and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. BRAVE is an acronym for the cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) anxiety management strategies covered in the program: B is for Body signs (detecting physiological symptoms of anxiety); R is for Relax; A is for Activate helpful thoughts; V is for Victory over fears; and E is for Enjoy yourself. While the treatment is generic and consists of identical components for all children, therapists can tailor the program to meet the needs of the individual young person. The program consists of series of sessions for the child or adolescent and their parents over several months. BRAVE–ONLINE is completed by families in their own homes and includes working through a skills-building series of weekly tasks.
The BRAVE research team includes Professor Sue Spence, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Griffith University and Honorary Professor, UQ; Dr Caroline Donovan, Griffith University (previously at UQ); Dr Sonja March, University of Southern Queensland (previously at UQ); Professor Justin Kenardy, UQ (Schools of Medicine and Psychology).
About UniQuest Pty Limited
Established by The University of Queensland in 1984, UniQuest is widely recognised as one of Australia's largest and most successful university commercialisation groups, benchmarking in the top tier of technology transfer worldwide. From an intellectual property portfolio of 1500+ patents it has created over 70 companies, and since 2000 UniQuest and its start-ups have raised more than A$450 million to take university technologies to market. Annual sales of products using UQ technology and licensed by UniQuest are running at A$3 billion. UniQuest now commercialises innovations developed at The University of Queensland and its commercialisation partner institutions: University of Technology Sydney, James Cook University, University of Tasmania, Mater Medical Research Institute, and Queensland Health. A recent addition to the company is the Queensland Government-supported ilab technology business incubator and accelerator. UniQuest also provides access to an expansive and exclusive network of independent academics to tailor a consulting or project RD solution to meet the diverse needs of industry and government, facilitating some 500 consulting, expert opinion, testing, and contract research services each year. UniQuest is also a leading Australasian provider of international development assistance recognised for excellence in technical leadership, management and research. Working with agencies such as AusAID, NZAID, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, UniQuest has developed and implemented more than 400 projects in 60+ countries throughout the Pacific, South-East Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Africa.
About CCBT Limited
Founded in 2005, CCBT Limited is an innovator and world leader in delivering evidence based computer-aided cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT). CCBT Limited's FearFighter™ Treatment is the only product endorsed by a national regulator (NICE in the UK – TA097) for an Anxiety Treatment. In 2010 the company released its Calmer Series (a suite of psycho-education products) and announced the release of new products for OCD, Depression, Substance Abuse and Insomnia. Already at the forefront of providing online psychiatric treatments and self-help, CCBT Limited is now leading the market as the developer of choice for clinicians wishing to take their treatments to larger communities and establishing our healthcare platform as the leading international platform for treatment delivery. Treatments and programs are in use in the NHS, insurance sector, healthcare providers and by national charities.