Cognitive therapy superior to interpersonal psychotherapy for social anxiety disorder

January 01, 0001

Cognitive therapy superior to interpersonal psychotherapy for social anxiety disorder

Cognitive therapy (CT) focuses on the modification of biased information processing and dysfunctional beliefs of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) aims to change problematic interpersonal behavior patterns that may have an important role in the maintenance of SAD. The purpose of this study by German and UK authors was to compare the efficacy of CT, IPT, and a waiting-list control (WLC) condition. They conducted a randomized controlled trial of 106 participants who completed the treatment or waiting phase. Treatment comprised 16 individual sessions of either CT or IPT and 1 booster session. Twenty weeks after randomization, posttreatment assessment was conducted and participants in the WLC received 1 of the treatments.

They found: "At the posttreatment assessment, response rates were 65.8% for CT, 42.1% for IPT, and 7.3% for WLC. Regarding response rates and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale scores, CT performed significantly better than did IPT, and both treatments were superior to WLC. At 1-year follow-up, the differences between CT and IPT were largely maintained, with significantly higher response rates in the CT vs the IPT group (68.4% vs 31.6%) and better outcomes on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. No significant treatment x site interactions were noted."

The authors concluded: "Cognitive therapy and IPT led to considerable improvements that were maintained 1 year after treatment; CT was more efficacious than was IPT in reducing social phobia symptoms."

Cognitive therapy was clearly superior in this study.

For the full abstract, click here.

Arch Gen Psychiatry 68(7):692-700, July 2011 © 2011 to the American Medical Assciation
Cognitive Therapy vs Interpersonal Psychotherapy in Social Anxiety Disorder-A Randomized Controlled Trial. Ulrich Stangier, Elisabeth Schramm, Thomas Heidenreich, Matthias Berger, David M. Clark. Correspondence to Dr. Stangier: [email protected]

Category: P. Psychological. Keywords: social anxiety disorder, cognitive therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, randomized controlled trial, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Linda French, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 15 July 2011

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.