Brief Cognitive Therapy Plus Treatment as Usual for Social Anxiety Disorder: a Randomized Trial of Adults in India

We examined the efficacy of a brief CBT (bCBT) in 53 patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Patients were randomized to either bCBT plus treatment as usual (N = 27) or TAU only (N = 26). Seven sessions of bCBT (Wells and Papageorgiou in Behavior Research and Therapy, 39, 713–720, 2001), were delivered. The primary self-report outcome was the Social Interaction and Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the primary rater-based outcome was the Liebowitz Social anxiety scale (LSAS). “Response” to treatment was assessed using the Clinical Global Impressions–Improvement. Assessments were carried out at baseline, post-treatment, and 3 months for the bCBT group and at baseline and post-treatment for the TAU group. There were 23 treatment completers in the bCBT group. Linear-mixed model ANOVAs indicated superiority in change following bCBT, on the LSAS, SIAS, and the Clinical Global Impressions (CGI)-severity. The TAU group improved on CGI-severity and Social Phobia Rating Scale (SPRS) self-attention. At post-treatment, 65% of bCBT cases and 4% in TAU met criteria for “recovered”, supporting the effectiveness of bCBT in the treatment of SAD.