Differential reactivity of attention biases in patients with social anxiety disorder

Information-processing biases based on cognitive and cognitive behavioral models have been reported in social anxiety disorder (SAD). One such bias is the attention bias, or selectively attending to threat stimuli. This bias has been associated in anxiety with maintenance and worsening of SAD symptoms. The objective of the present study was to examine, compare, and clarify differences in attention biases to language stimuli between SAD patients and healthy people. Results indicated, no differences between the two groups, but differences were seen in the attention bias score among SAD patients. This suggests that there is an increased threat effect among SAD patients triggered by their attention bias toward social threat stimuli (AU)

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The preliminary study of individual cognitive behavior therapy for Japanese patients with social anxiety disorder.

Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of both individual and group cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) programs for social anxiety disorder (SAD) with patients in many countries. The present preliminary study reports the effectiveness of individual CBT for Japanese patients with SAD. Fifteen outpatients diagnosed with SAD completed an individual CBT program of six 50-min sessions with several components, including cognitive restructuring to modify cost and probability bias, repeated speech exposure, and homework about idiosyncratic anxiety-provoking situations. The results show that SAD symptoms improved after completion of the program. Large effect sizes were found for cognitive factors of SAD. In addition, repeated speech exposure was highly effective for improving the self-perception of subjective anxiety. The present findings suggest that an individual CBT program can be effective for reducing SAD symptoms with Japanese patients.