The number of psychotherapy patients are increasing. One primary cause is that the number of people suffering from social anxiety disorder is also increasing.
Because of that, many studies are being conducted as many treatment options include medication instead of behavioral therapy at this point.
One study conducted used electroencephalograms (EEG) to measure the data of the electrical interactions of the brain by delta-beta coupling. This was executed on 25 adult participants with social anxiety disorder for 12 weekly sessions of brain therapy.
The exercises consisted of group cognitive behavior therapy, structured method for identifying people, and a thinking challenge.
The 25 participants went through two EEG before the therapy, one in the middle of the 12-week therapy and one following therapy.
The results at the end, by comparing the pre-therapy and post-therapy results, showed that the delta-beta correlations of all the patients had already resembled to those people with low-anxiety.
Currently, researchers still cannot conclude that psychotherapy really changes the brain. This is only an opening for future studies.
However, many experts suggest that this study alone may pave the way of the future to potentially find a successful treatment option for many anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder.
The study was conducted by the group that was led by David Moscovitch from the University of Waterloo. It was funded by Ontario Mental Health Foundation.