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

This meta-analysis multiple well-controlled studies were combined to help clarify the overall impact of psychological treatments for social anxiety disorder. A comprehensive literature search produced 32 randomized controlled trials (N = 1,479) that were included in the final analyses. There was a clear overall advantage of treatment compared to waitlist (d = 0.86), psychological placebo (d = 0.34), and pill-placebo (d = 0.36) conditions at posttreatment on the primary, domain specific outcome measures. The average treated participant scored better thin 80% of the waitlist and 66% of the placebo participants. Treatment also faired better than control conditions across secondary, outcomes including cognitive measures (d = 0.55), behavioral measures (d = 0.62), and general subjective distress measures (d = 0.47). Treatment gains were maintained at follow-up (d = 0.76). Combined exposure and cognitive therapy (vs. control: d = 0.61.) was not significantly different from exposure (vs. control: d = 0.89; p = 0.33) or cognitive treatments (vs. control: d = 0.80; p = 0.70). Likewise, group treatments (vs. control: d = 0.68) were not significantly different from individual treatments (vs. control: d = 0.69; p = 0.62). Effect sizes were not associated, with treatment dose (p = 0.91), sample size (p = 0.53), or publication year (p = 0.77). The results add confidence to previous meta-analytic findings Supporting the use of psychological treatments for social anxiety disorder with no significant differences in treatment type or format.