TY - JOUR

T1 - Psychological group-treatments of social anxiety disorder

T2 - A meta-analysis

AU - Wersebe, Hanna

AU - Sijbrandij, Marit

AU - Cuijpers, Pim

PY - 2013/12/6

Y1 - 2013/12/6

N2 - Background: A few meta-analyses have examined psychological treatments for a social anxiety disorder (SAD). This is the first meta-analysis that examines the effects of cognitive behavioural group therapies (CBGT) for SAD compared to control on symptoms of anxiety. Method: After a systematic literature search in PubMed, Cochrane, PsychINFO and Embase was conducted; eleven studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria. The studies had to be randomized controlled studies in which individuals with a diagnosed SAD were treated with cognitive-behavioural group therapy (CBGT) and compared with a control group. The overall quality of the studies was moderate. Results: The pooled effect size indicated that the difference between intervention and control conditions was 0.53 (96% CI: 0.33-0.73), in favour of the intervention. This corresponds to a NNT 3.24. Heterogeneity was low to moderately high in all analyses. There was some indication of publication bias. Conclusions: It was found that psychological group-treatments CBGT are more effective than control conditions in patients with SAD. Since heterogeneity between studies was high, more research comparing group psychotherapies for SAD to control is needed.

AB - Background: A few meta-analyses have examined psychological treatments for a social anxiety disorder (SAD). This is the first meta-analysis that examines the effects of cognitive behavioural group therapies (CBGT) for SAD compared to control on symptoms of anxiety. Method: After a systematic literature search in PubMed, Cochrane, PsychINFO and Embase was conducted; eleven studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria. The studies had to be randomized controlled studies in which individuals with a diagnosed SAD were treated with cognitive-behavioural group therapy (CBGT) and compared with a control group. The overall quality of the studies was moderate. Results: The pooled effect size indicated that the difference between intervention and control conditions was 0.53 (96% CI: 0.33-0.73), in favour of the intervention. This corresponds to a NNT 3.24. Heterogeneity was low to moderately high in all analyses. There was some indication of publication bias. Conclusions: It was found that psychological group-treatments CBGT are more effective than control conditions in patients with SAD. Since heterogeneity between studies was high, more research comparing group psychotherapies for SAD to control is needed.

KW - Health sciences

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84894186268&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/3417f717-b568-30f8-8bd4-61fcbd857a93/

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0079034

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0079034

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 24260148

AN - SCOPUS:84894186268

VL - 8

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 12

M1 - e79034

ER -