Self-Views in Social Anxiety Disorder: The Impact of CBT versus MBSR
Matthew D Thurston, P. Goldin, R. Heimberg, J. Gross
Journal of Anxiety Disorders January 10, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2017.01.001 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 108 |
| Population | Unmedicated patients with social anxiety disorder |
| Interventions | Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction |
| Duration | 12-week intervention |
| Topics | Anxiety Meditation |
| Key findings | Both CBGT and MBSR improved self-views in SAD, and increases in positive self-views predicted symptom reduction. |
Abstract
This study examines the impact of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy (CBGT) versus Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) versus Waitlist (WL) on self-views in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD). One hundred eight unmedicated patients with SAD were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of CBGT, MBSR, or WL, and completed a self-referential encoding task (SRET) that assessed self-endorsement of positive and negative self-views pre- and post-treatment. At baseline, 40 healthy controls (HCs) also completed the SRET. At baseline, patients with SAD endorsed greater negative and lesser positive self-views than HCs. Compared to baseline, patients in both CBGT and MBSR decreased negative self-views and increased positive self-views. Improvement in self-views, specifically increases in positive (but not decreases in negative) self-views, predicted CBGT- and MBSR-related decreases in social anxiety symptoms. Enhancement of positive self-views may be a shared therapeutic process for both CBGT and MBSR for SAD.