Behavioral Therapy Effectively Treats Children With Social Phobia
Children With Social Phobia A behavioral therapy designed to treat children diagnosed
with social phobia helped them overcome more of
their symptoms than the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac), according to an
NIMH-funded study published in the December 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry. Social phobia, also called social anxiety disorder, is
characterized by an extremely distressing fear of social situations, of being
watched or judged by others, and of being embarrassed. People with social phobia
also may have physical symptoms like a racing heart, excessive sweating or
blushing, trembling, nausea and other symptoms. Social phobia is more extreme
than common shyness and can interfere with a person’s ability to function.
Children with the disorder avoid everyday activities and situations such as
playing with other kids, reading in class, and speaking to
adults. Deborah Beidel, Ph.D., of the University of Central Florida,
and colleagues randomly assigned 139 children ages seven to 17 to one of three
treatments—Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children (SET-C), fluoxetine or
placebo (sugar pill). SET-C includes individual and group therapy sessions, plus
a type of exposure therapy designed to reduce the children’s social anxiety and
enhance their social skills. Antidepressants such as fluoxetine and other
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are commonly used to treat social phobia
in children, with typically favorable results. Throughout the 12-week program, the children’s progress was
tracked through self-reports, parent ratings and independent evaluators. Beidel
and colleagues found that 79 percent of the children assigned to the SET-C group
responded to the treatment, while 36 percent of the fluoxetine group responded,
and 6 percent of the placebo group responded. In addition, when children were
evaluated right after the program ended, 53 percent of the SET-C group no longer
met criteria for social phobia, compared to 21 percent of the fluoxetine group,
and 3 percent of the placebo group. Overall, the researchers found that both SET-C and fluoxetine
helped children overcome social distress. And although fewer children responded
to fluoxetine treatment than SET-C, both groups maintained their gains at about
the same rate one year after treatment ended. But SET-C also helped children
overcome their fears and improve their general functioning and social skills,
suggesting the behavioral intervention has a more comprehensive treatment
effect.
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Source: National Institute Of Mental Health on Dec 22 2007 11:14:07 |