Abstract
AbstractSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by an excessive fear of social situations that can lead to serious functional impairment; it negatively affects a person’s self‐esteem and social interactions. Its prevalence has increased over the past four decades, and SAD is one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in Japan. Therefore, more precise interventions are needed. This study administered false safety behavior elimination therapy (F‐SET), which eliminates safety behavior (i.e., strategies that reduce anxiety), to six Japanese patients with SAD. This is the first adaptation of F‐SET into Japanese. Seven patients were screened and six (Mage = 27.83 years, only males) were eligible for the study criteria. Each patient received five weekly 60‐min F‐SET sessions. At post‐F‐SET, the mean reduction in Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale score from baseline was −20.50 (95% confidence interval: −30.65, −10.35; p = .003). After completing the treatment, all participants showed substantially decreased SAD symptoms, which indicates preliminary support for the adapted treatment’s efficacy.
Highlights
All patients received five weekly 60-minute false safety behavior elimination therapy (F-SET) sessions
(86%) was not eligible to partake in the trial, as this participant no longer met the diagnostic criteria for Social anxiety disorder (SAD) since their original diagnosis
The key observations from this initial pilot study were: (a) the intervention is administrable in Japanese clinical settings; (b) it was generally well received by social anxiety patients with no AEs; and (c) it seemed to reduce social anxiety for most, but not all patients
Summary
We set a cutoff score of on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) for screening patients suffering from SAD symptoms. (a) Screening and eligibility, the screening rate was defined as the number of patients who had contact with the recruitment team and who were assessed for eligibility using inclusion and exclusion criteria This included those who decided not to take part in the study. The means and their 95% CIs were estimated for continuous variables, frequencies, and proportions for the categorical variables Since this was a pilot study and no sample size or power calculation was performed on outcome measures, all comparisons were considered exploratory in nature, regardless of the significance level found. All participants provided written informed consent before participating in the study
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