The Effectiveness of Meta-Cognitive Therapy on Meta-Cognitive Beliefs and Cognitive Trust in Patients with Social Phobia Disorder

Social phobia is an anxiety disorder which can be described as a strong and persisting fear of situations where humiliation or embarrassment may occur. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of meta-cognitive therapy (MCT) on symptoms of positive meta-cognitive beliefs about worry and low cognitive trust in patients with social phobia disorder (SPD). This semi-experimental study was conducted with pretest-posttest and follow-up design، using control group. From all social phobia disorder (SPD) patients visited in psychology clinics in Shiraz city، south western part of Iran in 2010، 19 patients were selected through the objective sampling method and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. The social phobia symptoms assessment questionnaire (SPSAQ) and meta-cognitive questionnaire (MCQ) were used as the pre-test measures. The experimental group received 8 weeks of Wells’ meta-cognitive therapy sessions. The control group was in the waiting list until end of the follow up. The same measures were used for post-test and follow-up (after 3 months). Since obtaining a higher score in positive meta-cognitive beliefs about worry and low cognitive trust represents severity of the symptoms in patients with social phobia، it can be seen that the mean of posttest and follow up scores in the experimental group is significantly lower than that of the control group (P<0/05). The results of analysis of multivariate covariance showed that MCT had a significant effect in reducing the symptoms of positive meta-cognitive beliefs about worry and low cognitive trust in patients with social phobia disorder (p<0. 001). This intervention is believed to reduce symptoms of positive meta-cognitive beliefs about worry and low cognitive trust in patients with SPD patients by facilitating transmission from the object mode to the meta-cognitive mode and enhancing the efficient and flexible coping skills.