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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 23, 2006

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NORTON FIRST UH PSYCHOLOGIST TO RECEIVE PRESTIGIOUS NIMH AWARD
Researcher Receives $750,000 to Study Anxiety Disorder Treatments

HOUSTON, Aug. 23, 2006 – The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has recognized a University of Houston faculty member as a researcher on the rise.

Peter Norton, director of UH’s Anxiety Disorder Clinic and assistant professor of psychology, has been named the UH Department of Psychology’s first-ever recipient of NIMH’s Mentored Research Scientist Development Award. This honor carries a $750,000 grant that will be applied toward a five-year study focusing on anxiety disorders.

“This is a great honor,” Norton said. “This award is very satisfying, and I am particularly grateful to the Department of Psychology for its consistent support of my efforts. Most of all, I am pleased that this award will help me engage in new research and allow me to provide new answers to the many questions surrounding the treatment of anxiety disorders.”

Norton’s five-year project will compare methods of treating anxiety disorders. His research will focus on adapting cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to different types of anxiety disorders. The results of this study could help psychologists treat different anxiety disorders using a single, efficient treatment.

“Many anxiety disorders are left untreated because psychologists often lack the time, training and resources to focus on each specific case they encounter,” Norton said. “Anxiety disorders by nature, however, have many similarities. By adapting CBT to groups of patients with different anxieties, psychologists can treat more patients and do so more effectively.”

In UH’s Anxiety Disorder Clinic, he will treat groups – consisting of individuals with different anxiety disorders – using CBT, which concentrates on the interaction between how individuals think, feel and act. It also promotes self-support during moments of fear or distress.

Norton will first compare CBT against traditional supportive group therapy, a standardized treatment promoting group dialogues that focus on encouragement and reassurance. He will then compare group CBT against individual anxiety-specific treatments.

Anxiety disorders consist of excessive apprehension and fears that often cause people to take drastic measures to avoid the things of which they are the most afraid.

“Fears created by anxiety disorders can range from specific places, objects, animals, disturbing thoughts, memories, embarrassment or humiliation,” Norton said. “They will often try to control their anxiety by avoiding the things they fear, or by doing things to reduce their anxiety such as asking for reassurance, checking and re-checking, washing, or telephoning loved ones to make sure they are safe. Approximately 25 percent of Americans are diagnosed with anxiety disorders in their lifetime.”

Throughout his study, Norton will be consulted by a committee of three veteran researchers. These include David Francis, chairman of UH’s Department of Psychology and director of UH’s Texas Institute for Measurement Evaluation and Statistics; Gordon Paul, UH’s Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor and David Barlow, professor of psychology at Boston University.

“Peter Norton’s award is a tribute to his significant achievements in clinical research on anxiety related problems and to the promise offered by his future contributions,” Paul said. “UH, the Department of Psychology and the citizens of Houston who will benefit from his work are most fortunate to have access to such a talented clinical investigator.”

NIMH is part of the National Institutes of Health and is the lead federal agency for research on mental and behavioral disorders. Its mission is to reduce the burden of mental illness and behavioral disorders through research on mind, brain, and behavior.

The Mentored Research Scientist Development Award provides support for an intensive, supervised career development experience in one of the biomedical, behavioral or clinical sciences leading to research independence.

UH’s Anxiety Disorder Clinic is a specialty treatment and research clinic housed within the University of Houston's Psychological Research and Services Center at 4505 Cullen Blvd. The Anxiety Disorder Clinic opened in 2004, and serves three primary purposes: providing low-cost state-of-the-art cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of anxiety disorders; conducting research to better understand anxiety disorders and improve their treatment; and training graduate students to deliver the most powerful treatments for anxiety disorders. For more information on the Anxiety Disorder Clinic, visit http://www.uh.edu/anxiety/index2.htm.

For more information on NIMH, visit http://www.nimh.nih.gov/.

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