Title

The Impact Of Social Skills Training For Social Anxiety Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Keywords

Exposure therapy; Generalized social anxiety disorder; Social Effectiveness Therapy; Social skills training; Treatment of social anxiety disorder

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.

Publication Date

12-1-2014

Publication Title

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Volume

28

Issue

8

Number of Pages

908-918

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.09.016

Socpus ID

84911115085 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84911115085

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