Self-help for Treating Social Anxiety Disorder: An Evaluation of a Mindfulness and Acceptance-based Approach

NCT ID: NCT02400918

Last Updated: 2016-11-25

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 170 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2015-03-31
• Study Completion Date: 2016-09-30

Brief Summary

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is the most common anxiety disorder, affecting up to 10% of the population and causing significant distress. Fortunately, there are effective interventions including cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). However, only about a third of people with SAD seek treatment. There are a number of barriers to seeking treatment, including cost, availability, and stigma. Self-help may be one way to reach people who may not otherwise present for treatment. Research on self-help books for SAD based on CBT has yielded promising results. However, no research to date has examined the efficacy of ACT-based self-help for SAD. The primary purpose of the present study is to evaluate The Mindfulness and Acceptance-based Workbook for Social Anxiety and Shyness (Fleming & Kocovski, 2013), an ACT-based self-help book. Socially anxious participants will be randomly assigned to receive the workbook or be placed on a waitlist. It is hypothesized that workbook participants will report significantly reduced social anxiety at the end of eight weeks compared to waitlist participants. The secondary purpose is to evaluate how the treatment works. Increases in mindfulness and acceptance have been shown to lead to reduced social anxiety. These same variables will be examined in the present study. Finally, this research aims to examine variables that can predict who may do well in treatment. Given that two-thirds of people who meet criteria for this disorder will not seek traditional treatments, it is important to develop and evaluate alternative treatments, including those based on self-help.

Conditions

Anxiety; Shyness

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Workbook

They will be directed to use the 8-week plan included in The Mindfulness and Acceptance-based Workbook for Social Anxiety and Shyness (Fleming \& Kocovski, 2013), an ACT-based self-help book and to access mindfulness audio files located on the publisher's website (as described in the book).

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

The Mindfulness and Acceptance-based Workbook for Social Anxiety and Shyness (Fleming & Kocovski, 2013)

Intervention Type: OTHER

An acceptance and commitment therapy-based self-help workbook for social anxiety and shyness. It includes an 8-week program.

Control

Waitlist control

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

The Mindfulness and Acceptance-based Workbook for Social Anxiety and Shyness (Fleming & Kocovski, 2013)

An acceptance and commitment therapy-based self-help workbook for social anxiety and shyness. It includes an 8-week program.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• must be seeking help for shyness/social anxiety

Exclusion Criteria

-

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Wilfrid Laurier University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Meagan MacKenzie

Postdoctoral Fellow

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Nancy L Kocovski, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Wilfrid Laurier University

Locations

Wilfrid Laurier University

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Countries

Canada

Other Identifiers

WilfridLU

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id