OBJECTIVE Various approaches to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) have been shown to be effective for social anxiety disorder. For psychodynamic therapy, evidence for efficacy in this disorder is scant. The authors tested the efficacy of psychodynamic therapy and CBT in social anxiety disorder in a multicenter randomized controlled trial. METHOD In an outpatient setting, 495 patients with social anxiety disorder were randomly assigned to manual-guided CBT (N=209), manual-guided psychodynamic therapy (N=207), or a waiting list condition (N=79). Assessments were made at baseline and at end of treatment. Primary outcome measures were rates of remission and response, based on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale applied by raters blind to group assignment. Several secondary measures were assessed as well. RESULTS Remission rates in the CBT, psychodynamic therapy, and waiting list groups were 36%, 26%, and 9%, respectively. Response rates were 60%, 52%, and 15%, respectively. CBT and psychodynamic therapy were significantly superior to waiting list for both remission and response. CBT was significantly superior to psychodynamic therapy for remission but not for response. Between-group effect sizes for remission and response were small. Secondary outcome measures showed significant differences in favor of CBT for measures of social phobia and interpersonal problems, but not for depression. CONCLUSIONS CBT and psychodynamic therapy were both efficacious in treating social anxiety disorder, but there were significant differences in favor of CBT. For CBT, the response rate was comparable to rates reported in Swedish and German studies in recent years. For psychodynamic therapy, the response rate was comparable to rates reported for pharmacotherapy and cognitive-behavioral group therapy.

In this study, we addressed the heterogeneity in interpersonal problems across patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). We assessed interpersonal problems by the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-C; Horowitz, Alden, Wiggins, & Pincus, 2000) in a sample of 78 GAD patients. We used IIP-C profiles describing interpersonal characteristics of the total GAD sample as well as clustered GAD interpersonal subtypes. Although the overall sample was located in the friendly submissive quadrant of the circumplex model, this was true only for the Exploitable cluster, which includes more than 50% of the patients. Importantly, clusters of GAD patients with other locations reporting predominantly Cold, Nonassertive, or Intrusive interpersonal problems were also identified. The 4 clusters did not differ in terms of gender, comorbid disorders, or the severity of depression or anxiety. Thus, the assessment of interpersonal problems provides additional diagnostic information covering the heterogeneity of GAD patients. This information could be used for differential indication and individual case formulation in GAD.

The results suggest that CBT and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy are beneficial for patients with generalized anxiety disorder. In future research, large-scale multicenter studies should examine more subtle differences between treatments, including differences in the patients who benefit most from each form of therapy.

CBT and psychodynamic therapy were efficacious in treating social anxiety disorder, in both the short- and long-term, when patients showed continuous improvement. Although in the short-term, intention-to-treat analyses yielded some statistically significant but small differences in favor of CBT in several outcome measures, no differences in outcome were found in the long-term.

Background: Structural and functional brain imaging studies suggest abnormalities of the amygdala and hippocampus in posttraumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. However, structural brain imaging studies in social phobia are lacking. Methods: In total, 24 patients with generalized social phobia (GSP) and 24 healthy controls underwent 3-dimensional structural magnetic resonance imaging of the amygdala and hippocampus and a clinical investigation. Results: Compared with controls, GSP patients had significantly reduced amygdalar (13%) and hippocampal (8%) size. The reduction in the size of the amygdala was statistically significant for men but not women. Smaller right-sided hippocampal volumes of GSP patients were significantly related to stronger disorder severity. Limitations: Our sample included only patients with the generalized subtype of social phobia. Because we excluded patients with comorbid depression, our sample may not be representative. Conclusion: We report for the first time volumetric results in patients with GSP. Future assessment of these patients will clarify whether these changes are reversed after successful treatment and whether they predict treatment response. Brief ReportReduced amygdalar and hippocampal size in adults with generalized social phobia IntroductionPresent evidence from functional brain imaging studies suggests that patients with social phobia, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or specific phobia share a pattern of hyperactivity of the amygdala and surrounding cortices, including the hippocampus, linked to negative emotional responses. 1 The majority of studies including patients with social phobia suggest that these changes may be most pronounced in the generalized subtype of social phobia (GSP). 2-4 A recent study suggests that these changes may resolve after successful psychotherapeutic or psychopharmacologic treatment of social phobia. 5 There is now an extensive body of evidence suggesting that PTSD 6 and major depressive disorder 7,8 are related to abnormal amygdalar and hippocampal size. However, the mechanisms underlying these changes are not well understood. Research in nonhuman primates has suggested that stress and prolonged glucocorticoid exposure may damage the hippocampus, 9 thus raising the possibility that stress may also induce hippocampal degeneration in humans with anxiety or affective disorders. Another possibility is that preexisting small hippocampal size increases the risk for developing anxiety or affective disorders. 10,11 However, structural brain imaging studies in social phobia are lacking. Given the fact that patients with traumatic and nontraumatic anxiety disorders share a pattern of medial temporal hyperactivity during functional neuroimaging, 1 investigation into structural aspects of the amygdala and hippocampus in social phobia are warranted. Furthermore, because the more severe form of social phobia (i.e., GSP) is likely associated with continuous and extreme stress, the possibility of a reduction of the size of the amygdal...

Replicability of findings is an essential prerequisite of research. For both basic and clinical research, however, low replicability of findings has recently been reported. Replicability may be affected by research biases not sufficiently controlled for by the existing research standards. Several biases such as researcher allegiance or selective reporting are well-known for affecting results. For psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy research, specific additional biases may affect outcome (e.g. therapist allegiance, therapist effects or impairments in treatment implementation). For meta-analyses further specific biases are relevant. In psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy research these biases have not yet been systematically discussed in the context of replicability. Using a list of 13 biases as a starting point, we discuss each bias's impact on replicability. We illustrate each bias by selective findings of recent research, showing that (1) several biases are not yet sufficiently controlled for by the presently applied research standards, (2) these biases have a pernicious effect on replicability of findings. For the sake of research credibility, it is critical to avoid these biases in future research. To control for biases and to improve replicability, we propose to systematically implement several measures in psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy research, such as adversarial collaboration (inviting academic rivals to collaborate), reviewing study design prior to knowing the results, triple-blind data analysis (including subjects, investigators and data managers/statisticians), data analysis by other research teams (crowdsourcing), and, last not least, updating reporting standards such as CONSORT or the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR).

Although there is evidence for the efficacy of psychodynamic therapy (PDT) in anxiety disorders, results are not yet satisfactory, for example, if rates of remission and response are considered. To address this problem, a unified psychodynamic protocol for anxiety disorders (UPP-ANXIETY) is proposed that integrates the treatment principles of those methods of PDT that have proven to be efficacious in anxiety disorders. In addition, this protocol is transdiagnostic, implying that it is applicable to various forms of anxiety disorders and related disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, panic disorders, avoidant personality disorder). Based on supportive-expressive therapy, the UPP-ANXIETY represents an integrated form of psychodynamic therapy that allows for a flexible use of empirically supported treatment principles. UPP-ANXIETY encompasses the following 9 treatment principles (modules): (1) socializing the patient for psychotherapy, (2) motivating and setting treatment goals, (3) establishing a secure helping alliance, (4) identifying the core conflict underlying anxiety, (5) focusing on the warded-off wish/affect, (6) modifying underlying internalized object relations, (7) changing underlying defenses and avoidance, (8) modifying underlying response of self, and (9) termination and relapse prevention. Some principles are regarded as core components to be used in every treatment (principles 3-8). A unified protocol for the psychodynamic treatment of anxiety disorders has several advantages, that is (1) integrating the most effective treatment principles of empirically supported psychodynamic treatments for anxiety disorders can be expected to further improve the efficacy of PDT; (2) using a unified protocol in efficacy studies has the potential to enhance the evidence-based status of PDT by aggregating the evidence; (3) a unified protocol will facilitate both training in PDT and transfer of research to clinical practice; and (4) thus, a unified protocol can be expected to have a significant impact on the health care system. We are planning to test the UPP-ANXIETY in a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

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