Cognitive-behavioral therapy of social phobia: Models and techniques

Abstract

Social phobia is a widespread mental disorder in the general population. The main forms of treatment are psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. This article has as objective to carry out a brief bibliographical review of the most important cognitive and behavior models and techniques of social phobia. The old models - social skills deficit model, irrational ideas model, cognitive vulnerability model and the integrative models, will be briefly reviewed. Treatment techniques such as, exposure, cognitive restructuring, relaxation techniques, and social skills training will be presented. Meta-analysis studies about the efficacy of the cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of social phobia will be described.