The Effectiveness of Anxiety-regulating Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (STDP) on the Treatment of male patients with Social Phobia

The study goal was to investigate the effectiveness of anxiety-regulating short-term dynamic psychotherapy (STDP) in the treatment of male patients with social phobia. The study was carried out over six young men with social phobia who were selected using purposeful sampling method, as a multiple baseline experimental single case study framework design, and 20 sessions for each patient accompanied with three months of follow-up. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) was used for patient selection and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) for assessing clinical status of patients. Graphic analysis, clinically significance, improvement ratio, and six index efficacy scales were used for data analysis. The anxiety-regulating STPD could decrease severity of social phobia (66% improvement) in which continued up to three months of follow-up period (67%). The patients’ scores based on SPIN were higher than the cut-off point (score of 19), nonetheless decreased to lower than the cut-off after the intervention and follow-up. The anxiety-regulating STPD focusing over emotional conflicts, may be an effective treatment for patients with social phobia.