Participate: Stanford: Large Treatment Study for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

[Drew]

At Stanford University, we are starting another large treatment study for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) that will run from August of 2011 to June of 2015. We are offering free treatment in the form of group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or group Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to people with SAD. Eligible participants are expected to do behavioral and fMRI assessments pre and post treatment (8 hr. assessment) and commit to a year of follow-up contact. Participants will be randomly assigned to one treatment or another.

The following are eligibility requirements: primary SAD, 21-55, right-handed, no current psychotropic medication, no schizophrenia, no bipolar disorder, no substance dependence, no claustrophobia, no metal in body, no more than 8 sessions of CBT for SAD, and no regular current meditation practice.

To screen people for social anxiety, the following 3 questions work very well. Have the client rate how much he/she has been bothered by the items below during the PAST WEEK on a scale of 0 to 4.
0=not at all bothered 1=a little bit bothered 2=somewhat bothered 3=very much bothered 4=extremely bothered

_____1. Being embarrassed or looking stupid are among my worst fears.
_____2. Fear of embarrassment causes me to avoid doing things or speaking to people.
_____3. I avoid activities in which I am the center of attention.

Scores of 6 or higher indicate probable social anxiety disorder.

If you know of people who have SAD, please have them contact:
stanfordCAMstudy@gmail.com

Study Website: http://caan.stanford.edu/current_research.html

[Event Horizon]

Wow this is great...this is actually my #1 on the list of the Uni's I want to transfer to :P. Perhaps they can use me in one of their studies.

[hoddesdon]

Why is it necessary to be right-handed?

[zookeeper]

It's always fun to guess some of the spin-off papers they're going to try and write based on the eligibility requirements. No left handers? No metal in the body?

The prevalence of anxiety disorders among demonically possessed terminators.

[Event Horizon]

Originally Posted by hoddesdon

Why is it necessary to be right-handed?

That's exactly what I was wondering :/

[zookeeper]

Originally Posted by hoddesdon

Why is it necessary to be right-handed?

When they're doing a study, particularly one of this size and cost, they want to squeeze as much out of it as they possibly can. From this study they could potentially get dozens of research papers exploring a variety of different things. The more they control the variables, the more they can do with the information later. That's my guess anyway...

(though, by the same logic, as long as they track each person's information in a proper database, they could pull up any information they wanted and include/exclude those participants who were left-handed or had metal in their body. maybe it is some sinister plot)

[Event Horizon]

Originally Posted by zookeeper

When they're doing a study, particularly one of this size and cost, they want to squeeze as much out of it as they possibly can. From this study they could potentially get dozens of research papers exploring a variety of different things. The more they control the variables, the more they can do with the information later. That's my guess anyway...

(though, by the same logic, as long as they track each person's information in a proper database, they could pull up any information they wanted and include/exclude those participants who were left-handed or had metal in their body. maybe it is some sinister plot)

I also heard that left-handed people are more prone to mental illness, so I guess they see this as an "unfair advantage". But then again, that might just be an urban myth?

[hoddesdon]

Originally Posted by Event Horizon

I also heard that left-handed people are more prone to mental illness, so I guess they see this as an "unfair advantage". But then again, that might just be an urban myth?

See: http://www.strangequestions.com/ques...andedness.html

The article above says that left-handers have a susceptibility to psychosis. Social phobia does involve invalid thoughts; Cognitive Behavioural Therapy includes challenging your thoughts.

Left-handers and schizophrenics both have brain asymmetry.

It is also genetic, so it must be a recessive gene.

[QuietBoy99]

Finally no medication; this sounds like a good study.

[QuackQuack]

Originally Posted by Drew

and fMRI assessments pre and post treatment (8 hr. assessment)

This is why you can't have any metal in your body. The MRI will burn it out of you.

And maybe for handedness they do some kind of task with hands to test you?

[obsidianavenger]

i'm pretty sure its because left handed people are more likely to localize certain brain functions in the opposite brain hemisphere from right handed people. rather than trying to deal with that confound in studying the fMRI data, they probably just decided to eliminate the possibility. sucks, cause i am near stanford and fit all the other criteria, but i am left handed

[mshollan]

I am very interested and will be applying..

[LittleBearBrah]

WOW! This is a Godsend! I attend CAL and could make the Berkeley courses. If I am selected for the future studies I will no longer trash on Stanfurd

[calichick]

Lol I did a two session "thing" on social anxiety at Stanford a few years back, the kind of study they paid you for..like $25 an hour for answering their questions and doing their exercises and leting them take a swab of my cheek....I wish I had stayed with the study...was too lazy to go back though.

[Dr House]

Originally Posted by QuackQuack

This is why you can't have any metal in your body. The MRI will burn it out of you.

And maybe for handedness they do some kind of task with hands to test you?

It's funny when people make fun of that which they do not understand.