Social anxiety disorder doesn’t always need a medication because a recently published study found that a good talk therapy is even more effective in treating such psychiatric condition.
It also found that a talk therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) showed lasting effects post-treatment.
"Social anxiety is more than just shyness," says Evan Mayo-Wilson, DPhil, a study leader and a research scientist at the Department of Epidemiology in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The condition affecting up to 13 percent of Europeans and Americans is characterized by extreme fear and avoidance of social situations.
It usually starts during adolescence or early adulthood, but it can have significant and long-term consequences.
People with the disorder can go through severe impairment, such as avoiding friendly relations and putting down work promotions that may require more social interaction.
Most of those suffering from the disorder never received treatment, or if they do, they get easier access to medications instead because of the shortage in trained psychotherapists.
Mayo-Wilson, however, says the disorder can be treated, but access to psychotherapy should be improved.
The study gathered and examined data came from 13,164 participants in a little over a hundred clinical trials that compared multiple types of talk therapy and medication.
All the participants suffered and endured intense social anxiety disorder. Roughly 9,000 used placebo pill or medication and over 4,000 underwent psychological intervention.
Few trials observed the combination of talk therapy with medication. No evidence, meanwhile, proved that a combined therapy was much better than talk therapy.
The data gathered from this study discovered that applying CBT individually was most effective of all.
CBT focuses on relationships between feelings, thoughts and behaviors. According to Mayo-Wilson, it assists people in challenging irrational fears and in overcoming their evasion of social situations.
In terms of medications, the researchers also discovered the efficiency of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which are considered the most commonly used antidepressants.
They acknowledged the importance of medication but reminded that the use of it as second-line therapy instead for people not responding to or refuse to take psychological therapy.
They warned though that medications can have serious unfavorable effects, can’t work for all people and can’t have prolonged effect on improving symptoms post-treatment unlike talk therapy.
"Greater investment in psychological therapies would improve quality of life, increase workplace productivity, and reduce healthcare costs," says Mayo-Wilson.
He suggests that there’s a need for more programs that will train clinicians and a need for more qualified supervisors to work with new physicians and more support staff and offices.
The researchers’ analysis already became instrument in the development of new guidelines on treatment in the United Kingdom.
Mayo-Wilson thinks it could also have a necessary impact on the organization of care and on policymaking in the United States.
The Lancet Psychiatry published the study on social anxiety disorder on Sept. 26.
