Fluoxetine, Comprehensive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Placebo in Generalized Social Phobia

This chapter provides a summary of a landmark study on anxiety disorders. For generalized social phobia, are fluoxetine and comprehensive cognitive behavioral therapy efficacious? How do their efficacies compare? And is there an advantage to combination therapy? Starting with these questions, it describes the basics of the study, including funding, study location, who was studied, how many patients, study design, study intervention, follow-up, endpoints, results, and criticism and limitations. Results of the study indicate that fluoxetine and comprehensive cognitive behavioral therapy are superior to placebo for the treatment of generalized social phobia; neither treatment is superior to the other and there is no apparent advantage to combination therapy. The chapter briefly reviews other relevant studies and information, discusses implications, and concludes with a relevant clinical case.