There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for anxiety disorders. In response, Northwestern labs are developing a range of tools, from online interventions to computational models, to address and explore processes linked to anxiety behaviors.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive feelings of fear that hamper daily life. Conditions under this umbrella include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder and selective mutism.
The APA names anxiety disorders as the most common mental illness. In a 2025 study of nearly 85,000 United States college students conducted by the Healthy Minds Network, 38% had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder — a figure driving studies at universities like NU.
Lab for Scalable Mental Health
One lab focused on creating tools to reduce mental health problems is the Lab for Scalable Mental Health.
The lab tackles anxiety through evidence-based online interventions; unlike traditional multi-week therapies, these are single-session interventions, designed to be completed and effective in a single sitting.
“There’s this notion that the longer therapy is, the more effective it is,” said Juan Pablo Zapata, the lab’s associate director. “What we know from research is that it actually plateaus at some point or picks up at some point, but most of the benefits that people report happen usually during those first couple of visits. And that first visit especially can be incredibly powerful.”
The lab currently lists 12 interventions on its website for children, teens, parents and college students. Topics range from self-harm to body image. One initiative, Project Engage, helps college students tackle a fear of criticism in classrooms, while Project EMPOWER helps parents understand and manage their child’s anxiety symptoms.
To evaluate their projects, the lab conducts trials with sample populations. In one study, 282 college students were randomly assigned the Project Engage module or control condition and later reported on module completion and classroom confidence.
The lab has partnered with more than 30 labs and companies, including Amazon and NU’s Youth Digital Mental Health Lab. It is also developing new projects, such as Project WING, which supports foster parents raising children who have experienced trauma.
Zapata said the lab hopes to create a permanent youth advisory panel and tailor interventions more precisely by age.
“Our interventions, up until now, kind of approached through the same lens, one solution fits all,” Zapata said. “Caring for a 17-year-old is very different than caring for a 10-year-old, for example, and the ways that you would practice the skills within those interventions look very differently for each of those age demographics.”
Youth Digital Mental Health Lab
Some of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health’s projects form the foundation for Library BeWell, a digital platform developed by the Youth Digital Mental Health lab to help youth manage anxiety.
Led by Feinberg Prof. Ashley Knapp, the lab often conducts research inside a public library rather than a traditional office.
Library BeWell, a partnership between the lab and Oak Park Public Library, is currently in development and offers resources for managing common anxiety symptoms.
Its pilot activities, adapted from Lab for Scalable Mental Health interventions, utilize several evidence-based approaches, such as exposure and cognitive reframing. For example, during one intervention, adolescents are prompted to imagine anxiety-provoking situations, such as presenting in front of class, and learn strategies to manage fear and relabel negative thoughts about their surroundings.
Knapp added that adolescent insight is directly incorporated into modules, particularly on topics such as race- and sexuality-related stress.
“We worked with (Black, Indigenous and other people of color) teens at the library to adapt it to minority stress,” Knapp said. “And we also asked them if they could help us create stories. It would be really offensive and just not good and not valid if I created stories for them, so we really wanted their voices and their lived experiences as part of the intervention.”
Library BeWell plans to publicly launch its site next year. Knapp also hopes to continue iterating the site, including developing shorter and more immediate recommendations.
In the future, she has discussed expanding Library BeWell testing into the Evanston Public Library and the Chicago Public Library.
“One of the grants I’m working on now is to adapt it for those different neighborhoods and then be able to test it out,” Knapp said. “So that’s the hope, to get more resources to the hands that need them.”
Northwestern Emotion and Risk Lab
NU labs do not just strive to mitigate effects. One explores what factors are associated with anxiety symptoms.
The Northwestern Emotion and Risk Lab, led by Stewart Shankman, studies the transmission and implications of disorders like anxiety and depression.
One of the lab’s current projects, “Decision Making: Measuring the Brain and Behavior,” uses computational modeling and participant studies to pinpoint behaviors and brain activity correlated with uncertainty intolerance — a common symptom across emotional disorders.
“People’s difficulty with uncertainty really cuts across not just anxiety disorders, but a lot of what we call internalizing disorders, where your problems are turned inward,” Shankman said. “We see it in social anxiety, where people feel uncertain about social feedback they get from others.”
Beyond research, the lab has reached out to schools to spread awareness of emerging mental health approaches. It has also developed interventions for other conditions, including a smartphone app for unemployed people experiencing depression.
Ultimately, Shankman said he hopes to implement more of the lab’s findings in public and clinical settings.
“There’s a large gap between what we know in science and what typical clinicians tend to do,” Shankman said. “And we haven’t done a lot of the science of implementation. But there’s a big need.”
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