Psychosocial treatments for social phobia

Increasing recognition of the prevalence and impairment associated with social phobia has spurred the development of effective psychosocial treatments for this disorder. Exposure-based interventions have the most empirical support. This article applies the tripartite model of anxiety to social phobia, describes state-of-the-art psychosocial treatments, and highlights studies on the comparative and combined efficacy of psychological and pharmacologic treatments. Clinical issues related to treatment implementation, limitations of extant psychosocial interventions, and suggestions for future research are also discussed.