Metacognitive Therapy for Social Anxiety in Youth: A Systematic Replication Series

Detailed Summary

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a fear of social situations that involve interacting with other people. Although it can be very upsetting, there are ways to help people deal with it. This study aims to explore the use of a new treatment called Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) for social anxiety in children and teenagers. MCT is a one-to-one talking therapy which works by changing people's patterns of attention and thinking in social situations. By doing this, people with SAD can begin to feel more confident and less anxious when interacting with others. Findings suggests that MCT works well when treating adults who have social anxiety. However, this treatment has not yet been used with young people. This study hopes to explore whether MCT can help treat SAD in children and teenagers. This information will help us to plan larger studies in the future. People who would like to take part in this study will be asked to fill in some questionnaires once a week for at least 2 weeks and return these to the researcher in the post. Following this, they will be offered 8 weekly sessions of MCT at their local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. Each session will last for about 1 hour. This will involve talking to a clinician about how they think and feel when in social situations, and filling in some more questionnaires. This will allow us to see how their social anxiety changes week-by-week and whether this has improved by the end of treatment (week 8). 1-months after people have had their last session of MCT, they will be asked to complete and return a final set of questionnaires through the post. This will allow us to get a final measure of their social anxiety and see whether any changes in SAD have been maintained. Primary Questions: * Is MCT a feasible and acceptable treatment for social anxiety disorder within a child and adolescent population? * Is MCT associated with improvements in SAD symptoms and functioning? Secondary Questions: * Are benefits associated with MCT replicable across subtypes of social anxiety disorder (general and specific)? * Are any gains associated with MCT for social anxiety disorder maintained at 1 month follow up?

Study Details

Timeline

Interventions