Accelerated Outpatient Individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder: A Preliminary Pilot Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common and chronic mental health condition. Given the significant prevalence and impairment caused by SAD, it is important to investigate novel ways to improve the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for SAD. One approach may be to provide CBT in an accelerated fashion, which involves multiple sessions per week. Such accelerated treatments have been shown to be effective in other anxiety disorders, but in SAD this accelerated treatment has only been studied in a group treatment format. AIMS: The aim of this study was to provide a preliminary investigation of the efficacy of individual accelerated CBT (aCBT) in the treatment of SAD. M..