Individuals with social anxiety disorder do poorly in residential treatment programs for the treatment of drug dependence. This is not surprising given the social nature of residential rehabilitation where group work and close social interactions are required.

Given the social nature of residential rehabilitation, we were interested in exploring whether we could address social anxiety symptoms prior to treatment entry and therefore enhance the likelihood that an individual would enter treatment and stay in treatment.

To conduct a randomised control trial to evaluate whether treatment of social anxiety symptoms prior to treatment entry improves treatment entry and retention.

Treatment seeking substance users (n=105) completed intake assessment interviews for entry into a residential rehabilitation program. Assessment comprised the Mini International Neuropsychiatric interview (Mini), the alcohol, smoking and substance involvement screening test (ASSIST), the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Participants were randomised to either a four-session social anxiety intervention or treatment as usual (which was to remain on the waiting list until treatment entry). A survival analysis was conducted to examine whether the intervention impacted on treatment retention.

The treatment did not significantly impact on treatment but the intervention group were significantly more likely to remain in treatment and this effect was only found in women.

For individuals with social anxiety disorder brief evidence based intervention focused on ameliorating social anxiety symptoms (e.g., cognitive behavioural treatment) may improve the retention in treatment. This effect appears to be gender specific.