BEHAVIORAL-ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF SOCIAL PHOBIA - AN EVALUATIVE REVIEW

This article provides an empirically derived description of social pho bia, including onset, prevalence, comorbidity, and issues of different ial diagnosis. Assessment and behavioral treatment strategies for soci al phobia are reviewed. It was not until the past few years that struc tured clinical interviews and self-report inventories have been develo ped with adequate reliability and validity to specifically assess soci al phobia. Thus much of the treatment outcome research is confounded w ith heterogeneous samples that make generalization of results difficul t to interpret. Heterogeneity of samples, lack of controlled compariso ns with adequate statistical power to detect treatment differences, an d inconsistent findings do not permit the drawing of any definitive co nclusions concerning the efficacy of behavioral treatment procedures a t this time. More treatment comparison studies for social phobia need to be performed using structured clinical interviews and standardized assessment devices specific for use with social phobia. Pre hoc power analyses should be performed to determine the number of subjects deeme d adequate to detect differences when performing comparison studies. A ssessment and treatment of social phobia with children is conspicuousl y nonexistent. Assessment and treatment procedures for social phobia n eed to be developed and standardized with children.