Imagery-based CBT for Social Anxiety Disorder: Piloting a Treatment Augmentation Protocol

Imagery-based CBT for Social Anxiety Disorder: Piloting a Treatment Augmentation Protocol

The purpose of this pilot study is to explore whether there is a differential impact of verbal versus imagery-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as a treatment augmentation strategy for individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Clients who have not demonstrated clinically significant change following group CBT for SAD will receive four additional sessions of either verbal-based CBT or imagery-based CBT. We hypothesize that that individuals who receive imagery-based CBT will experience even stronger improvements and be more satisfied with their treatment than individuals who received traditional verbal-linguistic CBT.

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a debilitating disorder, marked by significant functional impairment and high personal distress for those who suffer. Psychological treatment for SAD has traditionally been verbal-linguistic cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). However, a significant number of individuals who complete CBT for SAD do not achieve full response and continue to struggle with significant residual symptoms. One innovation that has received attention recently in the literature is using imagery-based CBT as a way to augment treatment outcome in SAD. Results from a pilot and benchmarking study suggest that participants who received imagery-based CBT were more likely to complete treatment than those who received traditional CBT and treatment outcome was strong for both groups, but stronger in the imagery-based CBT group.

However, before re-training hundreds of practitioners in using a completely novel treatment approach, it is important to see if a brief augmentation of traditional CBT programs is effective in producing further change for individuals with residual symptoms after group CBT. It is possible that individuals just require a few more sessions of the same verbal-linguistic CBT to consolidate treatment gains or work on lingering triggers of anxiety. It is also possible that more of the same is not as valuable as offering therapy using a different modality, such as imagery. Therefore, we propose to evaluate a brief imagery-based augmentation of traditional group CBT to explore its effects on further symptom reduction.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Completed eight out of twelve sessions of standard verbal-linguistic group cognitive behavioural therapy for social anxiety disorder
• Presented with a Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) score of greater than 19 post-treatment
• Interested in further treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

• Has another mental health concern of greater importance than social anxiety disorder