Examining co‐occurring social anxiety in cognitive behavioral therapy for eating disorders: Does it change and does it moderate eating disorder outcomes?

Eating disorders (EDs) often co-occur with social anxiety disorder (SAD). However, little research has examined the influence of SAD symptoms on ED treatment outcomes in the context of individual outpatient cognitive-behavior therapy for eating disorders (CBT-ED). It is plausible that SAD symptom severity could improve as a result of ED treatment, given the high overlap between EDs and SAD. We sought to test whether baseline SAD symptoms moderate early response to CBT-ED or post-treatment outcomes in CBT-ED, and the degree to which SAD symptoms improve during therapy despite SAD not being an explicit treatment target.