A Comparative Study of Disability Among Patients Suffering Social Anxiety Disorder and Comorbid Depressive Disorders

Egypt. J. Psychiatry, June 2009; 29(1): 27-33 Background: In recent years, we have come to recognize that social phobia is common, highly comorbid with other conditions such as depression. Despite the availability of these findings, there have been very few data demonstrating that persons with social phobia and/or depression in the community are impaired by their disorder. The current study aimed to demonstrate the disability attributed to social anxiety disorder (SD) whether it occurs alone or co-occuring with Depressive Disorders (DD). Subjects and Methods: The study was performed on three groups of females, each composed of 15 subjects. The first group is composed of patients diagnosed with SAD, the second group is composed of SAD and DD, while the third one was a control group. The groups were subjected to clinical psychiatric examination, and psychometric evaluation using; Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS); and Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI). Results: The mean scores of SDS were higher in patients with SaD and patients with SAD and comorbid DD compared to controls. Also, patients with SAD and DD had higher mean scores in social and family parameters of the SD than patients with SAD alone. Conclusion: Social anxiety disorder are associated with considerable degree of disability. The disability is increased when SAD co-occurs with DD. The substantial disability should not be minimized and targeted in treatment plans to improve patients quality of life.