Founded in 1982, the Anxiety Disorders Clinic was the first in the nation devoted to research and treatment of anxiety problems. Although the idea that anxiety could take the form of specific disorders had been increasingly recognized, little systematic information about these disorders was available at the time. The clinic has been a driving force behind the recent advances in the recognition, understanding, and/or treatment of anxiety disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and others. Our counterpart Hispanic Clinic offers research treatment in Spanish and is a valuable asset in the community.

While the Anxiety Disorders Clinic has been very much a part of the biological revolution that has transformed psychiatry, it has also taken a leading role in comparing and combining medication with cognitive behavioral treatments that have recently been shown to benefit anxiety disorders. Through collaborations with developers of innovative behavioral approaches in a Philadelphia research clinic, the Anxiety Disorders Clinic has developed new methods for the comparison of medication and behavioral therapy treatments for social phobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. After rigorous scrutiny at academic centers of differing "ideological" bents, these collaborations have enhanced the acceptance of the new and effective treatments and have become a model for the profession.

Anxiety Disorders Clinic researchers recently demonstrated the effectiveness of medication for the treatment of hypochondriasis. They have also expanded their research to include studies of the role of childhood trauma in patients with anxiety disorders, the psychiatric manifestations of Lyme disease, and various treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder and somatization disorder.

Contact information

Anxiety Disorders Clinic
Columbia University/NYSPI
1051 Riverside Drive, Unit #69
New York, NY 10032

Phone: 212 543-5367

E-mail: jose@nyspi.cpmc.columbia.edu