Psychodynamic psychotherapy versus cognitive behavior therapy for social anxiety disorder: An efficacy and partial effectiveness trial

Objectives: Comparing the overall and differential effects of psychodynamic psychotherapy (PDT) versus cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for social anxiety disorder (SAD).

Design: Patients with a primary SAD (N = 47) were randomly assigned to PDT (N = 22) or CBT (N = 27). Both PDT and CBT consisted of up to 36 sessions (average PDT 31.4 and CBT 19.8 sessions). Assessments took place at waitlist: pretest, after 12 and 24 weeks for those who received longer treatment: posttest, 3-month and 1-year follow-up.

Methods: Changes in the main outcome measure self-reported social anxiety composite, as well as in other psychopathology, social skills, negative social beliefs, public self-consciousness, defense mechanisms, personal goals, independent rater's judgments of SAD and general improvement, and approach behavior during an objective test, were analyzed using multilevel analysis.

Results: No improvement occurred during waitlist. Treatments were highly efficacious, with large within-subject effect sizes for social anxiety, but no differences between PDT and CBT on general and treatment-specific measures occurred. Remission rates were over 50% and similar for PDT and CBT. Personality disorders did not influence the effects of PDT or CBT.

Conclusions: PDT and CBT are both effective approaches for SAD. Further research is needed on the cost-effectiveness of PDT versus CBT, on different lengths PDT, and on patient preferences and their relationship to outcome of PDT versus CBT.