ArticlePloS one2015
The Cost Effectiveness of Psychological and Pharmacological Interventions for Social Anxiety Disorder: A Model-Based Economic Analysis.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04979676 (Changing the Course of Social Anxiety in Adolescence), which is not on this map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Changing the Course of Social Anxiety in Adolescence: What Works, Why, and for Whom
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparative effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for social anxiety disorder in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Efficacy and tolerability of paroxetine in adults with social anxiety disorder: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Medicine · 2020Pooled it
- An intervention to build social identities improves mental health and wellbeing in people with elevated social anxiety: Evidence from a single-arm clinical trial.The British journal of clinical psychology · 2025Trial
- More than doubling the clinical benefit of each hour of therapist time: a randomised controlled trial of internet cognitive therapy for social anxiety disorder.Psychological medicine · 2023Trial
- Cognitive therapy compared with CBT for social anxiety disorder in adolescents: a feasibility study.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2021Trial
- Users remain overlooked: Shared decision-making processes for people with anxiety disorders.Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing · 2025Article
- Individual cognitive therapy reduces frontal-thalamic resting-state functional connectivity in social anxiety disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Article
- Remotely delivered cognitive therapy for social anxiety disorder in adolescence: Preliminary efficacy evidence based on changes throughout treatment.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Observational
- Can Test Anxiety Interventions Alleviate a Gender Gap in an Undergraduate STEM Course?CBE life sciences education · 2019Article
- Mobile and traditional cognitive behavioral therapy programs for generalized anxiety disorder: A cost-effectiveness analysis.PloS one · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSocial anxiety disorder is one of the most persistent and common anxiety disorders. Individually delivered psychological therapies are the most effective treatment options for adults with social anxiety disorder, but they are associated with high intervention costs. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the relative cost effectiveness of a variety of psychological and pharmacological interventions for adults with social anxiety disorder.
methodsA decision-analytic model was constructed to compare costs and quality adjusted life years (QALYs) of 28 interventions for social anxiety disorder from the perspective of the British National Health Service and personal social services. Efficacy data were derived from a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Other model input parameters were based on published literature and national sources, supplemented by expert opinion.
resultsIndividual cognitive therapy was the most cost-effective intervention for adults with social anxiety disorder, followed by generic individual cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), phenelzine and book-based self-help without support. Other drugs, group-based psychological interventions and other individually delivered psychological interventions were less cost-effective. Results were influenced by limited evidence suggesting superiority of psychological interventions over drugs in retaining long-term effects. The analysis did not take into account side effects of drugs.
conclusionVarious forms of individually delivered CBT appear to be the most cost-effective options for the treatment of adults with social anxiety disorder. Consideration of side effects of drugs would only strengthen this conclusion, as it would improve even further the cost effectiveness of individually delivered CBT relative to phenelzine, which was the next most cost-effective option, due to the serious side effects associated with phenelzine. Further research needs to determine more accurately the long-term comparative benefits and harms of psychological and pharmacological interventions for social anxiety disorder and establish their relative cost effectiveness with greater certainty.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.