Análise dos comportamentos de segurança em ansiosos sociais submetidos à terapia cognitivo comportamental de grupo

Abstract

Social anxiety disorder, also called social phobia, is defined as excessive fear or anxiety and avoidance of social interactions and situations involving the possibility of being evaluated. Social phobics often resort to security behaviors to prevent the occurrence of a central threat or to restore the sense of security in a particular context of potential threat. Cognitive behavioral group therapy has shown considerable efficacy and is less costly than other methods. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the changes in the scores of the safety behaviors after the occurrence of cognitive behavioral group psychotherapeutic intervention. For this, a non-randomized clinical trial composed of 4 phases was developed. In the first and third phase, instruments were used to evaluate social anxiety and anxiety (BAI and Liebowitz Scale), depression (BDI) and the safety behaviors (ECSAS) used by the participants in the intervention group. In the second phase, the intervention was developed and the dropouts were automatically allocated to the Control Group. Thus, in the fourth phase of the project, these people responded to the research tools, setting up the post-tests. The study sample consisted of 86 adults, 78 participants from the intervention group and 8 participants from the control group. The data were analyzed and tabulated using the statistical package Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). It can be verified that the intervention was effective in reducing the symptoms bringing better quality of life and social performance.