A COMPOSITE MEASURE TO DETERMINE THE FUNCTIONAL STATUS OF TREATED SOCIAL PHOBICS - THE SOCIAL PHOBIA ENDSTATE FUNCTIONING INDEX

Development of a composite index for use in treatment outcome research with social phobia is described. The index consists of a number of in dividual outcome measures, and the cutoff scores are based on the perf ormance of a normal control group. Treatment sensitivity of the index was assessed, and the change in classification of social phobics treat ed with behavioral or drug treatment was determined. At posttreatment, outcome measures revealed significant changes over treatment, and dis tribution of social phobics on the composite index was more similar to that of normals than at pretreatment. The results are discussed in te rms of the usefulness of composite indexes in treatment outcome resear ch and the necessity for such measures to be based on normative data.