In a recent article published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, a review on the effectiveness of the MINUNNESS and acceptance -based therapies (MABSS) in the treatment of social anxiety disorder (DAS).
The authors (Norton et al., 2015) started from the obvious consideration that cognitive behavioral therapy has long demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of das.
However, it is equally true that, recently, the effectiveness of the MABTS protocols in the treatment of various disorders is being evaluated with satisfactory results. This led the authors to produce a review of Effective studies of the Mabts for the das.
In the literature it seems that the protocols investigated for the DAS are the MinUfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), the MINUFULESS Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Act) and the Mindfulness and Acceptance Group Therapy (Magt).
Herbert, Gershkovich, & Forman (2014) ranked MABTS interventions in two groups: one based on meditation, the other on new behavioral approaches.
The scientific articles for the review were sought by referring to Psycinfo, Med-Line, Pubmed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The keywords used were: Social Anxiety, Sad, Social Phobia, Mindful, Experiential, Concrete, Nonjudgmental, Nonreactive, Meta-Damareness, Metacognition, Decentring, Observer Self, Acceptance, Intervene, Indication, Editation, Change, Treatment, Therapy, Trial, Anxied, Mood, Mood, Mood, Emotion, Avoidance (editor’s note: they were deliberately left in English). The articles were considered until 7 July 2014.
From the literature, and in agreement with the exclusion criteria defined by the authors, they were selected 9 studies (3 MBSR, 2 MBCT, 2 Act, 2 Magt).
Basically all studies demonstrate one effectiveness in the reduction of symptoms Das, but not a greater efficacy than these compared to traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Obviously the authors underline the limits of this review, such as the limited number of studies or the relative sample amplitude.
In conclusion, the authors hope that further research on the effectiveness of these protocols are produced, perhaps also considering parameters other than the only symptomatological reduction. In any case, however, in the current state of the facts, the authors show that the Cognitive behavioral therapy remains the primary choice for the treatment of the das.
Ar Norton, MJ Abbott, MM Norberg, & C. Hunt. A Systematic Review of Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based Treatments for Social Anxied Disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol. 71 (4), 283–301 (2015)
