Therapy for Social Anxiety Changes the Brain? Study Says Yes

 Time management and organization skills from an ADD expert. by Dr. Stephanie Sarkis Therapy for Social Anxiety Changes the Brain? Study Says Yes Social Anxiety Therapy: Can It Change Brain Waves? Published on March 21, 2011

A study uses an EEG to measure brain wave differences before and after psychotherapy for social anxiety disorder:

ScienceDaily (2011-02-14) - When psychotherapy is helping someone get better, what does that change look like in the brain? This was the question a team of psychological scientists set out to investigate in patients suffering from social anxiety disorder.

The study recruited 25 adults with social anxiety disorder from a Hamilton, Ontario clinic. The patients participated in 12 weekly sessions of group cognitive behavior therapy, a structured method that helps people identify - and challenge - the thinking patterns that perpetuate their painful and self-destructive behaviors.

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Two control groups - students who tested extremely high or low for symptoms of social anxiety - underwent no psychotherapy.

The patients were given four EEGs - two before treatment, one halfway through, and one two weeks after the final session. The researchers collected EEG measures of the participants at rest, and then during a stressful exercise: a short preparation for an impromptu speech on a hot topic, such as capital punishment or same-sex marriage; participants were told the speech would be presented before two people and videotaped. In addition, comprehensive assessments were made of patients' fear and anxiety.

When the patients' pre- and post-therapy EEGs were compared with the control groups', the results were revealing: Before therapy, the clinical group's delta-beta correlations were similar to those of the high-anxiety control group and far higher than the low-anxiety group's. Midway through, improvements in the patients' brains paralleled clinicians' and patients' own reports of easing symptoms. And at the end, the patients' tests resembled those of the low-anxiety control group.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110214142344.htm

 

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