A qualidade de vida em ansiosos sociais após a terapia cognitiva comportamental em grupo: uma análise pós intervenção terapêutica

Abstract

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), also called social phobia or pathological shyness, is defined by the DSM-V as excessive fear or anxiety in social situations involving observation, interaction, and performance, and in contexts that offer the possibility of judgment and negative evaluation. The disorder significantly interferes with the life of the individual, causing functional impairment and even triggering other comorbidities. In view of all the symptoms experienced by socially anxious people and their limitations, this disorder has a major impact on quality of life, being an important public health problem, although little recognized and underdiagnosed. Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBTG) has been one of the most requested treatments for this pathology and has demonstrated significant efficacy for social phobics. It is in this context that the objective is to evaluate the effects of a therapeutic intervention with social anxious people using CBTG techniques and the possible improvement in the quality of life of the patients. The study is of a qualitative character, consisting of an initial screening, group psychotherapy, and a semi-structured individual interview after the intervention, with the objective of understanding the perception of socially anxious people about the quality of life and its factors, as well as comprehending if the group interfered in anxious symptoms and in quality of life after the intervention, understanding the group's functionality and its effects within individual perceptions. The sample of the research is composed of adults between 18 and 60 years of age who think they are shy and were willing to participate in the group and in the posterior interview. The responses obtained in the interview were analyzed and categorized through the concepts of Content Analysis by Bardin (2016). According to the evidence found, it was confirmed that the group intervention was effective in reducing some symptoms of social anxiety, that the individual perception of each participant about quality of life reinforces the subjectivity of this concept, in addition to their lack of knowledge, and suggests improvement in quality of life and social performance after CBTG.