What good are positive emotions for treatment? A replication test of whether trait positive emotionality predicts response to exposure therapy for social anxiety disorder.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Positive valence emotions serve functions that may facilitate response to exposure therapy - they encourage approach behavior, diminish perceived threat reactivity, and enhance assimilation of new information in memory. Few studies have examined whether positive emotions predict exposure therapy success and extant findings are mixed.

Methods

We conducted a secondary analysis of an exposure therapy trial for social anxiety disorder to test the hypothesis that patients endorsing higher trait positive emotions at baseline would display the greatest treatment response. N = 152 participants enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of d-cycloserine augmentation completed five sessions of group exposure therapy. Pre-treatment positive emotionality was assessed using the

SUBMITTER: Taylor CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10862259 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature