Attention training for generalized social anxiety disorder.
Attentional bias toward negative social cues is thought to serve an etiological and/or maintaining role in social anxiety disorder (SAD). The current study tested whether training patients to disengage from negative social cues may ameliorate social anxiety in patients (N = 36) with a primary diagnosis of generalized SAD. Patients were randomly assigned to either an attention training condition (n = 18), in which patients completed a modified dot-probe task designed to facilitate attentional disengagement from disgusted faces, or a control dot-probe task condition (n = 18). As predicted, patients in the attention training condition exhibited significantly greater reductions in social anxiety and trait anxiety, compared with patients in the control condition. At termination, 72% of patients in the active treatment condition, relative to 11% of patients in the control condition, no longer met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) criteria for SAD. At 4-month follow-up, patients in the attention training condition continued to maintain their clinical improvement, and diagnostic differences across conditions were also maintained. Results support attention-based models of anxiety and suggest that attention training is a promising alternative or complementary intervention.
Schmidt
Norman B
NB
Department of Psychology, Florida State University.
Richey
J Anthony
JA
Department of Psychology, Florida State University.
Buckner
Julia D
JD
Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University.
Timpano
Kiara R
KR
0000-0002-0665-8722
Department of Psychology, Florida State University.
D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching; D055815:Young Adult