CBT for teens with Social Phobia & Depression

Therapy Helps Teens with Social Phobia By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Group therapy may help teenage girls who suffer from social phobia and depression, two psychological problems that often go hand-in-hand.

In a study of 35 teenage girls, researchers at Stanford University in California found that a treatment known as cognitive-behavioral group therapy lessened the girls' fears of social interaction, as well as their symptoms of depression--at least in the short-term. Dr. Chris Hayward and his colleagues report their results in the June issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Hayward told Reuters Health that his team was interested in looking at the relationship between social phobia and depression, both of which are more common in teenage girls than in boys. People with social phobia constantly dread and avoid social interactions because they fear the scrutiny of others. Social phobia and depression often occur together, but it's unclear whether one triggers the other.

In the study, 12 of the girls participated in 16 weeks of group therapy, while the rest were untreated. According to Hayward, girls in group therapy learned to deal with the automatic thoughts that occur in social phobia, such as ``This person thinks I'm stupid,'' or ``I'm not good at this.'' The girls were also given homework assignments in which they practiced social situations that usually frightened them.

After 16 weeks, the girls' symptoms of social anxiety, as well as depression, lessened significantly, Hayward said. One year later, however, there was little difference between the girls who were treated and those who were not.

It's unclear whether group therapy could produce long-term benefits for these patients, Hayward noted, but researchers are becoming more interested in using the treatment for teenagers. In addition, according to the Stanford researchers, this study shows that in some teenagers social phobia is complicated by episodes of depression, and that treatment should address both conditions.SOURCE: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2000;39:721-726.

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