The Efficacy of Pharmacotherapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies and Their combination on Patients with Social Phobia Disorder

This clinical trial was conducted in order to assess treatment of social phobia disorder. Social phobia is an anxiety disorder that appears in some certain situations or against specific objects that are not commonly known as dangerous. This clinical trial assessed the separate and combined effects of pharmacotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapies (in comparison with placebo). Therefore, among the patients who referred to psychology centers and private psychiatry practices in Neyshabur and Mashhad, Iran, 60 patients with social phobia disorder were selected by accessible sampling. The subjects were randomly divided into pharmacotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapies, combined therapy and placebo groups. The subjects were tested before, immediately after and 2 months after the end of the treatment course. Davidson Social Phobia, Schpillberger Anxiety, Hamilton-Beck Depression, Weismann-Myers Automatic Thought, California Social Adjustment and Eliss-Pope Self-Esteem tests were used to evaluate the patients. The results of repeated measures one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed decreased symptoms of social phobia, anxiety, and depression, change in automatic thought, and increased social adjustment and self-esteem levels among patients. The results also indicated the superiority of pharmacotherapy, cognitive-behavioral and combined therapies over placebo. Cognitive-behavioral and combined therapies were better than pharmacotherapy. However, the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral and combined therapies had no significant differences. Generally, pharmacotherapy affects physical and mood symptoms, but cognitive-behavioral therapies mainly affect thoughts and phobia impulse and gradually other real life situations. Therefore, these methods of therapy are interdependent.