The Clinical and Theoretical Basis for Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Comorbid Social Anxiety and Alcohol Use Disorders

•Social anxiety and alcohol use disorders are commonly comorbid; these cases are more severe and associated with poorer treatment response•Standard treatments do not address the mutually reinforcing relationship between these disorders•We propose an integrated CBT approach incorporating motivational interviewing that targets both disorders concurrently as well as the interconnections between them•We describe the theoretical and empirical foundation for this approach and its clinical application in this population.

Social anxiety and alcohol use disorders are commonly comorbid, with each condition doubling to tripling the risk of the other. When these conditions do co-occur, they tend to be more severe and respond poorly to standard treatment approaches. Models of social anxiety disorder and alcohol use comorbidity suggest these disorders are mutually reinforcing; thus, improved treatment outcomes may be observed with an integrated treatment approach that targets both disorders and the interconnections between them. In this paper we describe the development of an integrated approach that combines CBT and motivational interviewing to target both social anxiety and alcohol use disorders. We review the theoretical and empirical background of this treatment and provide a detailed description of the treatment protocol and clinical application in this population.