title: The impact of social skills training for social anxiety disorder: a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Social anxiety disorder (SAD) impacts social, occupational and academic functioning. Although many interventions report change in social distress, improvement in social behavior remains under-addressed. This investigation examined the additive impact of social skills training (SST) for the treatment of SAD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a sample of 106 adults who endorsed SAD across numerous social settings, participants were randomized to exposure therapy (imaginal and in vivo) alone, a combination of SST and exposure therapy known as Social Effectiveness Therapy (SET), or a wait list control. The assessment strategy included self-report measures, blinded clinical ratings and blinded assessment of social behavior.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both interventions significantly reduced distress in comparison to the wait list control and at post-treatment, 67% of patients treated with SET and 54% of patients treated with exposure therapy alone no longer met diagnostic criteria for SAD, a difference that was not statistically significant. When compared to exposure therapy alone, SET produced superior outcomes (p<.05) on measures of social skill and general clinical status. In addition to statistical significance, participants treated with SET or exposure reported clinically significant decreases on two measures of self-reported social anxiety and several measures of observed social behavior (all ps<.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both interventions produced efficacious treatment outcome, although SET may provide additional benefit on measures of social distress and social behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States. Electronic address: Deborah.Beidel@ucf.edu.
authors.forename: Deborah C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Beidel
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
authors.forename: Candice A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Alfano
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kofler
authors.affiliation: Center for Autism and Related Disorders, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States.
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States.
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Scharfstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wong Sarver
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007171:Implosive Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D066107:Social Skills; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Exposure therapy; Generalized social anxiety disorder; Social Effectiveness Therapy; Social skills training; Treatment of social anxiety disorder