Abstract
Cognitive biases have been suggested to play a crucial role in the etiology and maintenance of social anxiety disorder (SAD). The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of exposure therapy on attention- and approach-avoidance bias in SAD. In a randomized controlled trial, we compared changes from pre- to posttreatment in both biases in patients receiving stand-alone exposure therapy to a waiting-list control condition comprising 60 participants (Mage = 36.9 years) with SAD with heterogeneous social fears. Before and after treatment, attention bias was assessed using the dot probe task and approach-avoidance bias using the approach avoidance task. Results revealed that pre- to posttreatment changes in attention bias and approach-avoidance bias in exposure therapy did not significantly differ from changes in the waiting-list condition. Limitations and potential implications of the current results are discussed.
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Notes
In response to a reviewer’s suggestion, we conducted multilevel regression analyses separately comparing iVET and VRET with waiting-list. The results showed a similar pattern as the results of the analyses comparing active treatment with waiting-list, indicating that changes in bias scores did neither in iVET nor in VRET significantly differ from changes in the waiting-list condition. Therefore, we reported the results of the latter analyses only.
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This work was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; 655.010.207). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank the Intelligent System Department of the Delft University of Technology for their technical support.
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Isabel L. Kampmann, Paul M.G. Emmelkamp, and Nexhmedin Morina declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Kampmann, I.L., Emmelkamp, P.M.G. & Morina, N. Does Exposure Therapy Lead to Changes in Attention Bias and Approach-Avoidance Bias in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder?. Cogn Ther Res 42, 856–866 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-018-9934-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-018-9934-5