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Placebo effects in the treatment of male dating anxiety
K F Neumann1, J W Critelli, C S Tang
1North Texas State University.
Abstract:
The outcomes of cognitive-behavioral and high credibility placebo group treatments were compared in a sample of nineteen heterosocially anxious males. At post-test and at a 3-month follow-up, both treatments showed improvement on self-report measures of interpersonal functioning (ps less than 0.05). The cognitive-behavioral treatment showed a consistent pattern of improvement on self-report and behavioral measures of anxiety (ps less than 0.05), but, overall, the groups showed comparable levels of effectiveness. The possibility that both treatments relied on placebo mechanisms is discussed.
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