Title

The impact of social skills training for social anxiety disorder: A randomized controlled trial

Authors

Authors

D. C. Beidel; C. A. Alfano; M. J. Kofler; P. A. Rao; L. Scharfstein;N. W. Sarver

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Anxiety Disord.

Keywords

Generalized social anxiety disorder; Exposure therapy; Social skills; training; Social Effectiveness Therapy; Treatment of social anxiety; disorder; COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL GROUP; GROUP-THERAPY; PHOBIA; INVENTORY; PSYCHOTHERAPY; CONCURRENT; EXPOSURE; EFFICACY; VALIDITY; Psychology, Clinical; Psychiatry

Abstract

Objective: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) impacts social, occupational and academic functioning. Although many interventions report change in social distress, improvement in social behavior remains under-addressed. This investigation examined the additive impact of social skills training (SST) for the treatment of SAD. Method: Using a sample of 106 adults who endorsed SAD across numerous social settings, participants were randomized to exposure therapy (imaginal and in vivo) alone, a combination of SST and exposure therapy known as Social Effectiveness Therapy (SET), or a wait list control. The assessment strategy included self-report measures, blinded clinical ratings and blinded assessment of social behavior. Results: Both interventions significantly reduced distress in comparison to the wait list control and at post-treatment, 67% of patients treated with SET and 54% of patients treated with exposure therapy alone no longer met diagnostic criteria for SAD, a difference that was not statistically significant. When compared to exposure therapy alone, SET produced superior outcomes (p < .05) on measures of social skill and general clinical status. In addition to statistical significance, participants treated with SET or exposure reported clinically significant decreases on two measures of self-reported social anxiety and several measures of observed social behavior (all ps < .05). Conclusions: Both interventions produced efficacious treatment outcome, although SET may provide additional benefit on measures of social distress and social behavior. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Volume

28

Issue/Number

8

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

908

Last Page

918

WOS Identifier

WOS:000346540200022

ISSN

0887-6185

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