Guided and unguided internet-delivered psychodynamic therapy for social anxiety disorder: A randomized controlled trial
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is highly prevalent and debilitating disorder. Treatments exist but are not accessible and/or helpful for all patients, indicating a need for accessible treatment alternatives. The aim of the present trial was to evaluate internet-delivered psychodynamic therapy (IPDT)...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Npj mental health research Vol. 3; no. 1; p. 21 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
England
Springer Nature B.V
10-05-2024
Nature Portfolio |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is highly prevalent and debilitating disorder. Treatments exist but are not accessible and/or helpful for all patients, indicating a need for accessible treatment alternatives. The aim of the present trial was to evaluate internet-delivered psychodynamic therapy (IPDT) with and without therapist guidance, compared to a waitlist control condition, in the treatment of adults with SAD. In this randomized, clinical trial, we tested whether IPDT was superior to a waitlist control, and whether IPDT with therapeutic guidance was superior to unguided IPDT. Participants were recruited nationwide in Sweden. Eligible participants were ≥ 18 years old and scoring ≥ 60 on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale self-report (LSAS-SR) whilst not fulfilling any of the exclusion criteria. Included participants were randomly assigned to IPDT with guidance (n = 60), IPDT without guidance (n = 61), or waitlist (n = 60). The IPDT intervention comprised eight self-help modules based on affect-focused dynamic therapy, delivered over 8 weeks on a secure online platform. The primary outcome was SAD symptoms severity measured weekly by the LSAS-SR. Primary analyses were calculated on an intention-to-treat sample including all participants randomly assigned. Secondary outcomes were depressive symptoms, generalized anxiety, quality of life, emotion regulation and defensive functioning. At post-treatment, both active treatments were superior to the waitlist condition with guided treatment exhibiting larger between group effects than unguided treatment (d = 1.07 95% CI [0.72, 1.43], p < .001 and d = 0.61, 95% CI [0.25, 0.98], p = .0018) on the LSAS-SR respectively. Guided IPDT lead to larger improvements than unguided IPDT (d = 0.46, 95% CI [0.11, 0.80], p < .01). At post-treatment, guided IPDT was superior to waitlist on all secondary outcome measures. Unguided IPDT was superior to waitlist on depressive symptoms and general anxiety, but not on emotion regulation, self-compassion or quality of life. Guided IPDT was superior to unguided PDT on depressive symptoms, with a trend towards superiority on a measure of generalized anxiety. At six and twelve month follow-up there were no significant differences between guided and unguided IPDT. In conclusion, IPDT shows promising effects in the treatment of SAD, with larger benefits from guided IPDT compared to non-guided, at least at post-treatment. This finding increases the range of accessible and effective treatment alternatives for adults suffering from SAD. The study was prospectively registered at ClinicalTrials (NCT05015166). |
|---|---|
| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 2731-4251 2731-4251 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s44184-024-00063-0 |