The Effects of Waiting for Treatment: A Meta‐Analysis of Waitlist Control Groups in Randomized Controlled Trials for Social Anxiety Disorder

In clinical practice, patients suffering from a mental disorder often have to wait for treatment. By analyzing data from waitlist control groups we can gain estimates of symptom change that occur during waiting. It could be seen that waiting for treatment only results in a negligible effect. Thus, in the short-term (i.e., 10.6 weeks) time is no healer in social anxiety disorder. Our results are similar to previous meta-analyses on the effects of waiting in other disorders, e.g., depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.