Psychotherapy Augmentation through Preconscious Priming.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Behavioral Therapy

Background:

• Social phobia is a prevalent anxiety disorder.
• Cognitive change is a key mechanism in therapy for social phobia.
• Augmenting therapy with adjunctive techniques can improve outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if preconscious priming of personalized positive cognitions can enhance cognitive change in social phobic patients post-therapy.
• To determine if this priming technique facilitates goal achievement.
• To evaluate priming as an augmentation strategy for therapy.

Main Methods:

• Twenty social phobic patients underwent 12 weeks of group behavioral therapy.
• Following therapy, patients received 6 weeks of preconscious priming and 6 weeks of a control procedure in a randomized cross-over design.
• Cognitive changes were measured using the Social Interaction Self Statements Test (SISST).

Main Results:

• Patients showed improvement after therapy.
• The priming procedure led to increased positive cognitions and decreased negative cognitions on the SISST.
• Priming was more effective when administered immediately after group therapy.

Conclusions:

• Preconscious priming of positive cognitions demonstrated an effect on social phobia-related cognitions.
• The priming technique was effective in the expected direction.
• This self-administered method can serve as a valuable augmentation strategy to therapy.