Concomitant treatment with sertraline and social skills training improves social skills acquisition in social anxiety disorder: a double-blind, randomized controlled trial
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OBJECTIVES: To examine whether: (1) sertraline (SER) + psychotherapy is superior to psychotherapy alone; (2) group cognitive-behavioural therapy (GCBT) is superior to group psychodynamic therapy (GPT) and (3) SER+GCBT or SER+GPT is superior to Placebo (PLA)+GCBT or PLA+GPT in social anxiety disorder (SAD). METHODS: A double-blind randomized controlled trial. Participants were assigned either to: SER+GCBT (n = 34); SER+GPT (n = 36); PLA+GCBT (n = 36) or PLA+GPT (n = 41) for 20 weeks. SER (or PLA) was administered at doses from 50 to 200 mg/d. Primary measures were both categorial: remission (CGI score≤2), response of social symptoms (≥50% reduction in Scale of Avoidance and Social Discomfort (SASD)); and continuous: reduction of SASD and Multidimensional Scale of Social Expression(M-MSSE). RESULTS: SER exhibited better improvement of social anxiety symptoms rate than PLA (25.73% vs. 9.46%, P < .05). Neither GCBT differed from GPT (12.33% vs. 22.54%, P = .11) nor SER+GCBT from PLA+GCBT (17.65% vs. 7.69%, P = .20). However, SER+GPT was superior to PLA+GPT (33.33%, vs. 11.43%, P < .05). M-MSSE had superior improvement for SER+GCBT vs PLA+GCBT (P < .01) but not for SER+GPT vs. PLA+GPT (P = .80). SASD scores improvement were greater for SER than PLA (P < .01) and for SER+GCBT vs. PLA+GCBT (P < .05), but neither GCBT differed from GPT(P = .60) nor SER+GPT differed from PLA+GPT (P = .09). CONCLUSIONS: In overall, SER+psychotherapy was superior to psychotherapy alone. SER potentiated GCBT by enhancing social skills acquisition. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN 57551461.
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The efficacy of supportive therapy seems to happen almost as a norm among psychological intervention trials, which usually offer supportive therapy as a form of control intervention.
“Contrary to our predictions, the efficacy of supportive therapy seems to happen almost as a norm among psychological intervention trials, which usually offer supportive therapy as a form of control intervention (Markowitz, 2014; Bernik et al., 2018).”
From Inflammatory markers changes following acceptance-based behavioral psychotherapy in generalized anxiety disorder patients: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial (2024) · cites this paper as Bernik et al., 2018
The Discussion reports improvement with group psychodynamic therapy in this trial, but does not identify it as supportive therapy or describe it as a control intervention. Searches for supportive therapy as a control and for its efficacy across psychological intervention trials found no passage addressing either claim. (LLM, conf=0.77)
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- Authors
- Bernik, M., Corregiari, F., Savoia, M. G., Barros Neto, T. P. D., Pinheiro, C., & Neto, F. L.
- Affiliations
- Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2018-10-29
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- e0205809
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6205595
- OpenAlex
- W2898655373
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 1.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (BR) (97/11285-1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Keywords
- social anxiety disorder, sertraline, social skills training, group cognitive behavioral therapy, combined psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, social skills development, social anxiety symptoms, treatment response, remission, placebo comparison
- MeSH terms
- Phobia, Social, Adult, Combined Modality Therapy, Double-Blind Method, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychotherapy, Group, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Treatment Outcome, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, Sertraline, Young Adult, Social Skills
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