PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Background: There is a lack of empirical findings on the transportability of effective psychotherapy interventions and on the prediction of outcome for social anxiety disorder treated in the field. Methods: 131 patients diagnosed with social phobia were treated in a university-based psychotherapy outpatient clinic with a focus on cognitive-behavioral treatments. Techniques applied in individual treatments were identified retrospectively on the basis of patient files and investigated alongside other variables as predictors of treatment outcome. Results: Within-group effect sizes varied between 1.11 and 1.26 for completers, and between 0.64 and 0.81 for the intent-to-treat sample. None of the interventions was delivered according to only one treatment manual and only in 31% was at least three quarters of the treatment based on the same rationale. Most treatments drew on cognitive therapy, exposure therapy, and social skills training. There was a reduced positive effect size for exposure in vivo when compared to other treatment components. Furthermore, lower effect sizes occurred when role-play was implemented in isolation from its origin in behavioral experiments to examine dysfunctional thoughts. Conclusions: Treatment of social anxiety disorder in the outpatient clinic of the TU Braunschweig is effective; however, the effect sizes are below those reported in recent RCTs. The intervention techniques employed are predominantly drawn from different treatment manuals and they do not follow one specific method, as is customary in randomized treatment studies, indicating a discrepancy between services delivered in research versus field settings.