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

    Authors

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

    Comments

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    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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