Online-based cognitive behavioral therapy is cost-effective and therapeutic for social anxiety disorder, new research in JAMA Psychiatry determined.
Social anxiety disorder is characterized by a persistent, irrational fear of social or performance situations.
Conducted between 2017 and 2020, researchers from Karolinska Institutet evaluated more than 100 children between the ages of 10 and 17. A portion of the participants received online-based CBT, while other participants either joined a control group or received online-based supportive therapy.
According to the study: “In this randomized clinical trial of 103 children and adolescents with a principal diagnosis of SAD and their parents, a 10-week course of ICBT was efficacious and cost-effective compared with an active comparator.”
Researchers established the efficaciousness of online-based CBT against social anxiety disorder, after evaluating 103 participants.
“Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy was an efficacious and cost-effective intervention for children and adolescents with SAD. Implementation in clinical practice could markedly increase the availability of effective interventions for SAD,” the authors affirmed in their journal report.
