Social Anxiety Treatment Study

A researcher conducted a study to investigate the effectiveness of different therapeutic interventions for Social Anxiety Disorder.

Forty-five participants, all diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder, took part in the study. Before the interventions began, the researcher recorded the self-reported daily anxiety levels of each participant using a standardised 1–10 rating scale.

The 45 participants were then randomly allocated to three conditions with 15 participants in each:

• Group 1 underwent an 8-week course of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) therapy.
• Group 2 underwent an 8-week course of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET).
• Group 3 was placed on a waiting list and received no therapy.

At the end of the 8-week period, the researcher again recorded the daily anxiety ratings for each participant. The results showed that the average daily anxiety level for Group 1 and Group 2 had significantly decreased, while the average daily anxiety level for Group 3 showed no change.