A Meta–Analytic Review of Psychological Treatments for Social Anxiety Disorder

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark B. Powers ◽  
Snorri R. Sigmarsson ◽  
Paul M. G. Emmelkamp
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Psychological Treatments ◽  
Analytic Review

scholarly journals Does cognitive flexibility predict treatment gains in Internet-delivered psychological treatment of social anxiety disorder, depression, or tinnitus?

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Lindner ◽  
Per Carlbring ◽  
Erik Flodman ◽  
Amanda Hebert ◽  
Stephanie Poysti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Psychological Treatment ◽  
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Psychological Treatments ◽  
Perseverative Errors ◽  
Treatment Gains

Little is known about the individual factors that predict outcomes in Internet-administered psychological treatments. We hypothesized that greater cognitive flexibility (i.e. the ability to simultaneously consider several concepts and tasks and switch effortlessly between them in response to changes in environmental contingencies) would provide a better foundation for learning and employing the cognitive restructuring techniques taught and exercised in therapy, leading to greater treatment gains. Participants in three trials featuring Internet-administered psychological treatments for depression (n = 36), social anxiety disorder (n = 115) and tinnitus (n = 53) completed the 64-card Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) prior to treatment. We found no significant associations between perseverative errors on the WCST and treatment gains in any group. We also found low accuracy in the classification of treatment responders. We conclude that lower cognitive flexibility, as captured by perseverative errors on the WCST, should not impede successful outcomes in Internet-delivered psychological treatments.

Psychological Treatments for Social Anxiety Disorder

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona C. Kaplan ◽  
Michaela B. Swee ◽  
Richard G. Heimberg
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy ◽  
Behavioral Therapy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral ◽  
Psychological Treatments ◽  
Added Benefit ◽  
Effectiveness Studies

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by fear of being negatively evaluated by others in social situations. Multiple psychological interventions have been developed to treat SAD. The most widely studied of these interventions stem from cognitive-behavioral, acceptance-based, interpersonal, and psychodynamic conceptualizations of SAD. In cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), patients learn to identify and question maladaptive thoughts and engage in exposures to feared situations to test the accuracy of biased beliefs. Mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches to treating SAD focus on mindful awareness and acceptance of distressing internal experiences (i.e., psychological and physiological symptoms) with the ultimate goal of behavior change and living a meaningful life based on identified values. Interpersonal psychotherapy links SAD to interpersonal problem areas and aims to reduce symptoms by targeting interpersonal difficulties. Psychodynamic psychotherapy for SAD focuses on identifying unresolved conflicts that lead to SAD symptoms, fostering insight and expressiveness, and forming a secure helping alliance. Generally, CBT is the most well-studied of the psychological treatments for SAD, and research demonstrates greater reductions in social anxiety than pill placebo and waitlist controls. Results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) suggest that mindfulness—and acceptance-based therapies may be as efficacious as CBT, although the body of research remains small; four of five RCTs comparing these approaches to CBT found no differences. RCTs comparing CBT to IPT suggest that CBT is the more efficacious treatment. Two RCTs comparing CBT to psychodynamic psychotherapy suggest that psychodynamic psychotherapy may have efficacy similar to CBT, but that it takes longer to achieve similar outcomes. RCTs examining CBT and pharmacotherapy suggest that the medications phenelzine and clonazepam are as efficacious as CBT for treating SAD and are faster acting, but that patients receiving these medications may be more likely to relapse after treatment is discontinued than patients who received CBT. Research generally does not indicate added benefit of combining psychotherapy with pharmacotherapy above each monotherapy alone, although this body of research is quite variable. Effectiveness studies indicate that CBT is equally effective in community clinics and controlled research trials, but studies of this nature are lacking for other psychological approaches.

scholarly journals Neuroimaging in social anxiety disorder—A meta-analytic review resulting in a new neurofunctional model

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 260-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Beatrix Brühl ◽  
Aba Delsignore ◽  
Katja Komossa ◽  
Steffi Weidt
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Analytic Review

scholarly journals Psychological treatment of social anxiety disorder: a meta-analysis

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Acarturk ◽  
P. Cuijpers ◽  
A. van Straten ◽  
R. de Graaf
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Placebo Control ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Psychological Treatments ◽  
Randomized Studies ◽  
Meta Analyses

BackgroundOlder meta-analyses of the effects of psychological treatments of social anxiety disorder have found that these treatments have moderate to large effects. However, these earlier meta-analyses also included non-randomized studies, and there are many featured studies in this area which were published after the recent meta-analysis.MethodWe conducted a systematic literature search and identified 29 randomized studies examining the effects of psychological treatments, with a total of 1628 subjects. The quality of studies varied. For the analyses, we used the computer program comprehensive meta-analysis (version 2.2.021; Biostat, Englewood, NJ, USA).ResultsThe mean effect size on social anxiety measures (47 contrast groups) was 0.70, 0.80 on cognitive measures (26 contrast groups) and 0.70 both on depression (19 contrast groups) and general anxiety measures (16 contrast groups). We found some heterogeneity, so we conducted a series of subgroup analyses for different variables of the studies. Studies with waiting-list control groups had significantly larger effect sizes than studies with placebo and treatment-as-usual control groups. Studies aimed at subjects who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) criteria for social anxiety disorder had smaller effect sizes than studies in which other inclusion criteria were used.ConclusionsThis study once more makes it clear that psychological treatments of social anxiety disorder are effective in adults, but that they may be less effective in more severe disorders and in studies in which care-as-usual and placebo control groups are used.

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