Self-Compassion Enhanced CBT vs. Standard CBT for Social Anxiety (SCE-CBT)

Babes-Bolyai University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Social Anxiety Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: Self-Compassion Enhanced Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy; Behavioral: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02646865

UBB-CLINPSY-2016-1

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study evaluates the addition of a self-compassion training in the treatment of social anxiety disorder. Half of the participants will receive a self-compassion enhanced group cognitive-behavioral therapy, while the other half will receive standard group cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Full description

There is growing evidence showing that shame is associated with social anxiety. Also, empirical data shows that individuals with social anxiety have higher levels of shame compared with healthy individuals and that shame might play an important role in the maintenance of social anxiety symptoms. Although cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety seems to reduce the level of shame-proneness, the magnitude of this reduction is a small one.

The purpose of this study is to test whether adding a self-compassion component (which seems to be effective in reducing shame feelings) to a cognitive-behavioral protocol would increase the efficacy of the treatment in reducing both shame-proneness and social anxiety symptoms compared with a standard cognitive-behavioral intervention.

Enrollment: 60 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• subjects diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorders using the DSM-5 criteria
• subjects that have SAD as the primary diagnosis according to DSM-5 criteria
• exceed the cutoff scores on SPIN, SIAS, and LSAS-SR

Exclusion criteria

• subjects that score over 29 points at BDI-II
• display suicidal ideation (i.e., exceed a score of 2 on the suicide item of BDI-II)
• undergo other forms of treatment for SAD
• have a diagnosis of psychosis, bipolar disorder or personality disorders according to DSM-5 criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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60 participants in 2 patient groups

Self-Compassion Enhanced Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Experimental group

Description:

Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for social anxiety enhanced with exercises targeting self-compassion

Treatment:

Behavioral: Self-Compassion Enhanced Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Active Comparator group

Description:

Standard Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for social anxiety

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy