Computerized Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders

CAST is a newly developed computerized intervention designed to closely model the educational and behavioral techniques that are commonly used in the treatment of anxiety and related conditions. A psychoeducation component focuses on the nature of anxiety and its effects on the mind and body. Veterans will be taught that physiological and psychological arousal is not dangerous, although they may have developed a conditioned fear of this arousal. Interoceptive exposure (IE) exercises will also be introduced to as a way to reduce or eliminate the conditioned fear response.