Table 2.

Summary of studies investigating the relationship between hormones and psychotherapy in individuals with anxiety disorders.

	Hormone as Predictor of Therapeutic Change		Hormone as Indicator of Therapeutic Change
	Treatment Level	Session Level	Treatment Level	Session Level
Hormone
Cortisol	Phobias: Low levels during exposure predict worse outcomes [27,31,32,33,34,35]	Social anxiety disorder: Low levels predict greater fear during exposure [33]	Generalised anxiety disorder: Levels decrease over treatment [43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50] Social anxiety disorder: No change [31,45]	Phobias: No change with exposure [27,31,44,45,48]
Oxytocin	Phobias: High levels predict worse outcomes [67] Social anxiety disorder: No effects on outcomes, but high levels predict better evaluation of appearance and speech performance [66]	-	-	-
Oestradiol	Phobias: Low levels predict worse outcomes to exposure therapy but not cognitive therapy [80,81,82]	Phobias: Low levels predict slower improvement during exposure [80]	-	-