Author(s) :

Aaron J. Heon.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a widespread mental health condition that affects individuals across diverse cultural backgrounds. However, the development of its treatments has primarily focused on Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) populations. This overreliance on WEIRD samples disregards genetic, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that influence the effectiveness of GAD interventions among ethnic minority groups. These populations often face distinctive barriers to treatment such as lack of accessibility, cultural stigma, and mistrust in healthcare systems, all of which limit treatment engagement. The objective of this literature review is to examine the effectiveness of existing GAD interventions for ethnic minority populations. This review covers GAD interventions that have shown promising results among minority populations: Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) combined with venlafaxine XR, Motivational Interviewing (MI) as a pretreatment, and culturally adapted CBT. These studies suggest potential directions for the future development of culturally inclusive GAD treatments.