Sudden gains during therapy of social phobia.

Full Abstract

The present study investigated the phenomenon of sudden gains in 107 participants with social phobia (social anxiety disorder) who received either cognitive-behavioral group therapy or exposure group therapy without explicit cognitive interventions, which primarily used public speaking situations as exposure tasks. Twenty-two out of 967 session-to-session intervals met criteria for sudden gains, which most frequently occurred in Session 5. Individuals with sudden gains showed similar improvements in the 2 treatment groups. Although cognitive-behavioral therapy was associated with more cognitive changes than exposure therapy, cognitive changes did not precede sudden gains. In general, the results of this study question the clinical significance of sudden gains in social phobia treatment.

Author information

Author/s: Hofmann, Stefan G (SG); Schulz, Stefan M (SM); Meuret, Alicia E (AE); Moscovitch, David A (DA); Suvak, Michael (M);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA. shofmann(-atsign-)bu.edu

Grants: MH-57326 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS) ; R29 MH057326-05 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of consulting and clinical psychology (J Consult Clin Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Aug; vol 74 (issue 4) : pp 687-97

Dates: Created 2006/08/02; Completed 2006/09/21; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 16881776, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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