Examining the Effect of Drama Therapy on Social Anxiety Among Students of Mashhad's University of Medical Sciences: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Determining the effect of group drama therapy on the severity of social anxiety symptoms Comparing the degree of changes in the quality of life between the intervention and control group participants Evaluating the effectiveness of group drama therapy in improving social functioning and reducing fear of social situations in participants with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

This semi-experimental study will be conducted on 20 patients. The study employs a parallel-group design, with participants randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group. Stratified randomization by gender will be utilized to ensure balance across groups.

The study population will include students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in the 1404–1405 academic year who are currently completing their internship training. Participants will be selected through convenience sampling and will be randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group. The intervention group will receive psychodrama therapy sessions delivered by a therapist. The control group will receive sham sessions without therapeutic content.

Be students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences Have no comorbid psychiatric disorder Meet the DSM-5 criteria for Social Anxiety Disorder Be 17 to 30 years old Have not received psychotherapy in the past 3 months Not use psychiatric medications during the study Be willing to complete the questionnaires and participate in the sessions

The intervention group will undergo 12 sessions of 90-minute psychodrama therapy based on a protocol grounded in the theories of Moreno, Blatner, and Holmes.For the control group, sham sessions without any therapeutic content will be administered.

Adult social anxiety; quality of life

Stratified randomization based on gender will be employed. In this approach, participants will first be categorized by gender, followed by independent random allocation within each stratum. To enhance gender balance between the two groups, block randomization will be implemented within each gender stratum. This method involves creating blocks of a fixed size (e.g., blocks of four or six) within each gender stratum, where an equal number of participants are allocated to the intervention and control groups. The allocation sequence within each block will be determined completely at random. The Randomization.com website will be used to generate the random allocation sequences for each block.