A Comparison Between Internet Therapy and Group Therapy for Social Phobia - A Trial Using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

A Comparison Between Internet-based Self-help Therapy and Group Therapy for Social Phobia - A Clinical Equivalence Trial Using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Status

Completed

Phases

Phase 3

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT00564967

Acronym

IS1

Enrollment

128

Registered

2007-11-29

Start date

2007-11-30

Completion date

2010-08-31

Last updated

2010-10-26

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Social Phobia

Brief summary

Social phobia is one of the most prevalent anxiety disorders in the western world. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the psychological treatment that has the largest empirical support. However, the availability to CBT is very limited in Sweden due to lack of therapists with proper training. Therefore it is important to evaluate alternative forms of treatment that are more time efficient. One of these methods is Internet based self-help therapy, which has proven to be an effective treatment for social phobia. To the investigator´s knowledge, no study has yet directly compared live-CBT to Internet therapy. The aim of the present study is to compare the effect of live CBT vs CBT delivered via the Internet. The study is considered to be an equivalence trial. 128 patients will be randomly assigned to one of the two treatment conditions. The primary outcome measure is Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS).

Interventions

BEHAVIORALCBT via the Internet

15 weeks, patients learn about CBT primarily thru a self-help book published on teh Internet, Minimal therapy contact via e-mail(10 minutes/week),

BEHAVIORALCBT group therapy

15 weeks, 1 session/week, (2,5 hours.)

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

16 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* Must have a primary diagnosis of social phobia

Exclusion criteria

* Substance abuse during the last 6 months * Other dominating diagnosis (not phobic personality disorder) * A history of bipolar disorder or psychosis * Major depression according to DSM-IV and \>20 on madrs-s * Risk of suicide * Start of medication or change of dosis during the last 2 months * Other parallel psychological treatment * Previous CBT (last 3 years) for social phobia

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS)	—

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
SIAS, SPS,QOLI,MADRS-S, BAI,ASI,CGI, WQ, GAF, TIC-P, SSP	—

Countries

Sweden

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Mar 29, 2026