comparison of the cognitive behavioral therapy (cbt) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (mbsr): reducing anxiety symptoms

Background: social anxiety is a clinical pattern of self-protection social behaviors that coincides with severe anxiety regarding negative reactions such as critique, being ridiculed, miss-communication, or miss-behaviors against others. objectives: this research investigated the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy (cbt) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (mbsr) on the reduction of anxiety symptoms in females with social anxiety disorder. methods: the planning of this study was through a semi-experimental method of pretest and posttest type with two groups. the research population included the students of sanandaj payam-e-noor university suffering from social anxiety disorder. the sample size was40womenchosen byrandomsamplingmethodand assigned to two groups of mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioral therapy. the subjects participated were the students of payam-e-noor university of kurdistan in the academic year 2013 - 2014. data were collected by liebowitz social anxiety scale (lsas) and minnesota multi-phasic personality inventory (mmpi). data were analyzed by the analysis of covariance and dependent t-test. results: the resultsshowedthat both cognitive behavioral therapy (p< 0.001, t=2.40)andmindfulness-based stress reduction were impressive in reducing the stress, while mindfulness-based stress reduction (p < 0.001, t = 4.82) was more effective than cognitivebehavioral therapy. conclusions: in order to improve and decrease the anxiety in these patients, it will be essential to consider these variables during designing appropriate interventions.