Building Closer Friendships in Social Anxiety Disorder

Building Closer Friendships in Social Anxiety Disorder: A Preliminary Test

This study assesses whether a 4-week computerized intervention can be used to decrease fear of intimacy, and loneliness and improve perceived social support in people with Social Anxiety Disorder.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Social Anxiety
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Building Closer Friendships

Detailed Description

This study hopes to assess whether a month long computerized intervention aimed at giving people skills to form closer friendships. Participants will be randomized into an active treatment condition or a wait list control. We hypothesize that 1) participants in the treatment condition will have lower fear of intimacy at post treatment than those in the waitlist condition 2) participants in the treatment condition will have lower levels of loneliness than those in the waitlist condition 3) participants in the treatment condition will have higher perceived social support than those in the waitlist condition.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 55
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Florida
    • Tallahassee, Florida, United States, 32304
      • Florida State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Social Anxiety Disorder Diagnosed by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview
• Social Phobia Inventory Score >19
• Stable psychotropic medication for the past month and kept stable for duration of study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Currently participating in therapy
• Current Substance Dependence
• Bipolar Disorder or psychotic illness
• Current suicidality (imminent risk)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Active Treatment; four week computerized intervention designed to reduce fear of intimacy	Behavioral: Building Closer Friendships; Intervention designed to build social support and reduce loneliness by giving participants skills to strengthen their relationships
No Intervention: Wait List Control; Participants will continue as usual and will be given the option to receive the active treatment after completion of the study

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support	Self-report scale that measures perceived levels of social support. Scores range from 12 to 84 with higher scores indicating higher levels of perceived social support. The three subscales (friends, family and significant other) all have a range of 4 to 28 with higher scores indicating higher levels of perceived social support.	Change in Perceived Social Support from baseline to post treatment (4weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)
Fear of Intimacy Scale-friend version	self report scale measuring fear of intimacy in friendships. Scores range from 26 to 130 with higher scores indicating a higher level of fear of intimacy.	Change in fear of intimacy from baseline to post treatment (4weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
UCLA Loneliness Scale	A 20 item Self report scale measuring loneliness. Scales range from 0 to 60 with higher scores indicating a higher level of loneliness.	Change in loneliness from baseline to post treatment (4weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)
Social Phobia inventory	Self-report scale that measures Social anxiety symptoms. Scores range from 0 to 68 with higher scores indicating higher levels of social anxiety symptoms.	Change in social anxiety symptoms from baseline to post treatment (4 weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)
State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety-Trait Version (STICSA-T)	Self-report measure used to assess overall anxiety symptoms. Scores range from 21 to 84 with higher scores indicating higher levels of overall anxiety.	Change in overall anxiety symptoms from baseline to post treatment (4 weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)
Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)	Self-report measure used to assess depressive symptoms. Total scores range from 0 to 60 with higher scores indicating a higher level of depressive symptoms.	Change in depression symptoms from baseline to post treatment (4 weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)
Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ)	Self report measure of suicide vulnerability. Total scores range from 15 to 105, with higher scores indicating a higher vulnerability for suicide.	Change in suicide vulnerability from baseline to post treatment (4 weeks) and one month follow up (8 weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Florida State University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 25, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 15, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): December 15, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 13, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 13, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): September 14, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 29, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 26, 2021
• Last Verified: January 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Phobic Disorders; Anxiety Disorders; Phobia, Social
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2018.23774

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No