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A substantial body of research has demonstrated the challenges commonly facing people with visible differences (disfigurements) and explored the potential benefits offered by specialist psychosocial support and intervention for those who are negatively affected. However, little is known about the availability of such support in Europe for people whose appearance is in any way different to 'the norm'. This survey of 116 psychosocial specialists from 15 European countries, working with a range of patient groups, has shown a tendency for specialists to prioritise Cognitive-behavioural-based approaches, amongst a wide range of other approaches and interventional techniques. It indicates variations in the availability of support, and a perceived need for improved access to interventions, additional training, and greater awareness of the psychosocial issues associated with visible differences., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The role that the involvement of parents may play in the treatment outcome of their children with anxiety disorders is still under debate. Some studies dealing with other disorders have examined the role that the expressed emotion (EE) construct (parental overinvolvement, criticism and hostility) may play in treatment outcome and relapse. Given that some of these aspects have been associated with social anxiety for a long time, it was hypothesized that EE may be associated with lower treatment outcome. The sample was composed of 16 adolescents who benefited from a school-based, cognitive-behavioural intervention aimed at overcoming social anxiety. Then, parents were classified with high or low EE. The results revealed that the adolescents whose parents had low EE showed a statistically significant reduction of their social anxiety scores at posttest, as opposed to adolescents of parents with high expressed emotion. These findings suggest that parental psychopathology (parents with high EE) should be taken into consideration to prevent poor adolescent treatment outcome.

Few studies have reported long-term follow-up data in adults and even fewer in adolescents. The purpose of this work is to report on the longest follow-up assessment in the literature on treatments for adolescents with social phobia. A 5-year follow-up assessment was conducted with subjects who originally received either Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Adolescents (CBGT-A), Social Effectiveness Therapy for Adolescents--Spanish version (SET-Asv), or Intervención en Adolescentes con Fobia Social--Treatment for Adolescents with Social Phobia (IAFS) in a controlled clinical trial. Twenty-three subjects completing the treatment conditions were available for the 5-year follow-up. Results demonstrate that subjects treated either with CBGT-A, SET-Asv and IAFS continued to maintain their gains after treatments were terminated. Either the CBGT-A, SET-Asv and IAFS can provide lasting effects to the majority of adolescents with social anxiety. Issues that may contribute to future research and clinical implications are discussed.