Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) currently affects between four and five million people in the United States. People suffering from GAD experience debilitating pathological anxiety, which typically interferes with their ability to function normally. Forty percent of people with GAD are eventually diagnosed with depression, while as many as 25 percent are diagnosed with panic disorders. Often, sufferers attempt to use alcohol and drugs to manage their anxiety.
Psychologists have striven to identify the root causes of GAD and its effect on patients, and to develop coping strategies for their patients. Dr David Fresco, assistant professor of psychology at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, teaches clinical research methods and cognitive behavior therapy. He also conducts clinical research on GAD, and on the factors associated with resiliency and human excellence. To identify meaningful relationships better and more quickly, Dr Fresco needed a software package to conduct statistical interpretation and analysis. Moreover, as an avid Macintosh user, he needed Macintosh-based software that was also Windows®-compatible so that he could easily collaborate with colleagues.
Dr Fresco uses IBM SPSS Statistics Base* for Macintosh® in both of his major areas of study: the study of causes and treatment of GAD; and the identification of factors associated with human resilience and excellence. In his GAD research, Dr. Fresco could quickly analyse data he has gathered in clinical populations, and determine which characteristics correlate.
When researching human resilience, Dr Fresco and his colleagues could determine how variables relate to or predict an outcome, which in turn helps the team develop interventions designed to promote ‘resiliency’ – the ability of patients to spring back from and successfully adapt to adversity.
The flexibility of IBM SPSS Statistics Base in handling multiple data formats … is extremely beneficial. Since the datasets are so compact, I can share results with colleagues via the Internet and collaborate in real time. What's really great is that I don't miss a beat…
Dr David Fresco
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
Dr Fresco has studied psychology for more than a decade. His interest in GAD resulted from his work both before and during graduate school. As an assistant professor of psychology at Kent State University, he seeks to identify characteristics shared among patients with GAD and those with bulimia nervosa. He believes both disorders reflect a fundamental deficiency in the way that these patients experience their emotions and choose to express them. By understanding why people attempt to escape their emotional experiences through worry, Dr Fresco hopes to treat GAD, with the further goal of possibly preventing it before it develops into the disorder and, subsequently, into other conditions such as depression.
Dr Fresco typically begins his research by conducting clinical interviews and both written and computer‑based tests. He interviews participants and control groups, examining factors such as their responses to stressful events, their attitudes/emotions, their marital status, their income level, and their past emotional problems. After gathering the data, Dr. Fresco performs more than 90 percent of his statistical research using IBM SPSS Statistics Base.
Dr Fresco identifies symptoms of GAD – restlessness, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension etc – to determine which characteristics individuals afflicted with the disorder do not share with the control group. With these factors in mind, he then develops pro-active intervention methods to better combat the disorder.
For the majority of his career, Dr Fresco has been using IBM SPSS Statistics Base for Macintosh to quickly determine how variables relate to one another. He also performs regression analysis to determine how a number of factors combine to affect a person. By identifying patterns and relationships, Dr Fresco can rephrase his questions or adjust his analysis to help him identify the cause of the disorder and develop treatments.
"The inherent ease of use of IBM SPSS Statistics Base for Macintosh has allowed me to focus less on crunching the data and devote more time to posing harder questions," says Fresco. "By focusing more mental energy on the project, I’ve become a more sophisticated statistician."
Historically, Microsoft® Windows® and Macintosh data files were incompatible. However, with software and operating system upgrades, Dr Fresco now collaborates with his Macintosh- and Windows-based colleagues across the country at universities such as Temple, Yale, and Stanford.
"The flexibility of IBM SPSS Statistics Base in handling multiple data formats – text, Excel®, Access®, or other format – is extremely beneficial. Since the datasets are so compact, I can share results with colleagues via the Internet and collaborate in real time. What's really great is that I don't miss a beat working on a Mac and collaborating with Windows colleagues. Sharing IBM SPSS Statistics Base datasets and syntax files is completely seamless. With IBM SPSS Statistics Base 11.0 for Macintosh, I can now share output files, too!" he adds.
Although Dr Fresco has made strides in understanding GAD and its root causes, more research is needed. With IBM SPSS Statistics Base playing an integral role in his analysis, he will continue to develop and refine treatments in an effort to ensure the highest rate of improvement – and foster peoples' ability to overcome adversity.
Interested in how SPSS Inc. analytics can help in medical research? Download the Kent State University PDF here.
*IBM SPSS Statistics Base, formerly called SPSS Statistics Base, is part of SPSS Inc.’s Predictive Analytics Software portfolio.
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