Cognitive behavior therapy  appears to be more effective than other evidence -based psychological techniques , and its effects appear to be more enduring than those of pharmacotherapy .
There is some evidence , albeit limited to certain drug classes , that the combination of  medication and cognitive behavior therapy may be more effective than either strategy used alone .
This article proposes a number of recommendations for the treatment of  generalized social phobia  , based on a systematic literature review and meta- analysis .
For medications , selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and dual serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are first-line choices based on their efficacy and tolerability profiles .
There are other medication classes with demonstrated efficacy in social phobia ( benzodiazepines , antipsychotics , alpha-2-delta lig and s ) , but due to limited published clinical trial data and the potential for dependence and withdrawal issues with benzodiazepines , it is unclear how best to incorporate these drugs into treatment regimens .
Residential cognitive therapy versus residential interpersonal therapy for social phobia: a randomized clinical trial.
Eighty patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for social phobia were r and omly assigned to 10 weeks of residential cognitive therapy ( RCT ) or residential interpersonal therapy ( RIPT ) . Subjects were assessed at pretreatment , midtreatment , posttreatment , and 1 year after end of treatment . The patients reported chronic , highly comorbid social phobia . Most had tried other treatments without success . Existing individual treatment protocol s for cognitive therapy and interpersonal therapy were extensively modified for an integrated group , individual , and residential format . The RCT and RIPT patients improved significantly on the primary outcome measures from pre- to posttreatment . No significant differences were observed between treatments . Patients also completed three weekly secondary outcome measures ; on one , social role security , RCT was superior to RIPT . The entire sample reported continued improvement from posttreatment to 1-year follow-up , indicating that improvements were robust . RCT in the present trial was associated with less improvement compared to individual CT in other recent trials
Cognitive behavior therapy  appears to be more effective than other evidence -based psychological techniques , and its effects appear to be more enduring than those of pharmacotherapy .
There is some evidence , albeit limited to certain drug classes , that the combination of  medication and cognitive behavior therapy may be more effective than either strategy used alone .
This article proposes a number of recommendations for the treatment of  generalized social phobia  , based on a systematic literature review and meta- analysis .
For medications , selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and dual serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are first-line choices based on their efficacy and tolerability profiles .
There are other medication classes with demonstrated efficacy in social phobia ( benzodiazepines , antipsychotics , alpha-2-delta lig and s ) , but due to limited published clinical trial data and the potential for dependence and withdrawal issues with benzodiazepines , it is unclear how best to incorporate these drugs into treatment regimens .