Cognitive-behavioral group therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction both improved self-views in social anxiety disorder. One hundred eight unmedicated patients were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of CBGT, MBSR, or a waitlist. At baseline, patients endorsed more negative and fewer positive self-views than 40 healthy controls. Both therapies decreased negative self-views and increased positive self-views from pre- to post-treatment. Increases in positive self-views, but not decreases in negative ones, predicted reduced social anxiety symptoms. Enhancement of positive self-views may be a shared therapeutic process for both treatments.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training in adults with social anxiety disorder (SAD) reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression and improved self-esteem. After completing MBSR, patients showed decreased negative emotion experience and reduced amygdala activity during a breath-focused attention task, alongside increased activity in brain regions involved in attentional deployment. These changes were not seen during a distraction-focused attention task. The findings suggest MBSR may reduce emotional reactivity and enhance emotion regulation in SAD, potentially decreasing avoidance behaviors and automatic emotional responses to negative self-beliefs.