The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy of Leahy and Schema Therapy of Young on Social Anxiety Disorder and Specific Symptoms Related to It

The present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy of Leahy and schema therapy of Young on social anxiety disorder and specific symptoms related to it. This study was a quasi-experimental study, developed pre-test and post-test type, with control group. Samples of study comprised 60 patients with social anxiety obtained the highest score in the social anxiety test of SPIN selected randomly through cluster sampling. In experimental groups, 20 people were trained in cognitive behavioral therapy according to Leahy package during 20 sessions and 20 people were trained in schema therapy according to Yang package, while 20 people in the control group received no training. Tools of study included SPIN questionnaire; and data were analyzed through repeated measure analysis using SPSS software. In the experimental groups there was significant difference in the social anxiety when entering the study, after treatment, and 6 weeks after treatment (p<0.004). While, in the control group, significant difference was not observed in this regard.
This means that cognitive-behavioral therapy and schema therapy were effective in reducing social anxiety. In addition, no significant difference was found among treatment groups in terms of efficacy of the components of social anxiety in post-test and follow-up. Based on the above results and in line literature of study, using aforementioned interventions in the related components will be possible in patients with social anxiety.