“…However, placebo effects are linked to expectations (Kirsch, 2004), and several studies have demonstrated that patients' expectations are powerful predictors of outcome in psychotherapy (Chambless, Tran, & Glass, 1997;Kirsch, 1999;Meyer et al, 2002;Safren, Heimberg, & Juster, 1997;Sotsky et al, 1991;Weinberger & Eig, 1999). Delsignore, Carraro, Mathier, Znoj, and Schnyder (2008) found high expectations of the therapist powerfulness to be the strongest predictor for clinical improvement. The age of onset of social phobia has seldom been included as a predictor in studies of predictors, but when reported, it has usually shown that early onset predicted poorer outcome (Mersch, Emmelkamp, & Lips, 1991) and lower recovery rates (Davidson, Hughes, George, & Blazer, 1993;DeWit, Ogborne, Offord, & MacDonald, 1999).…”