Overlap between social phobia (SP) and panic disorder (PD) has been observed in epidemiological, family, and challenge studies. One possible explanation is that some cases of SP develop as a consequence of a panic attack in a social situation. By definition, these cases of SP have sudden onset. It is hypothesized that patients with SP with sudden onset are more similar to patients with comorbid...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The majority of patients with social phobia reports experiencing negative images, usually linked to memories of earlier aversive social experiences. Several studies have indicated that such negative self-imagery appears to have a causal role in maintaining social phobia, which suggests that interventions aimed at dealing with these images could be beneficial in the tre...

BACKGROUND Research on depression has identified hyperactivity of the HPA axis as a potential contributory factor to the intergenerational transmission of affective symptoms. This has not yet been examined in the context of social phobia. The current study compared HPA axis activity in response to a universal social stressor (starting school) in children of 2 groups of women: one with social ph...

Social phobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by heightened fear and avoidance of one or more social or performance situations, including public speaking, meeting new people, eating or writing in front of others, and attending social gatherings. People with social phobia are typically anxious about the possibility that others will evaluate them negatively and/or notice symptoms of their an...

Physiological theories may be important in the development and maintenance of social phobia in youth. A limited literature base indicates that youth with social phobia experience increases in objective physiological arousal during social-evaluative situations and are more aware of such increases compared to nonanxious youth. Recent research suggests that youth with social phobia also evidence h...

Social phobia is a common and debilitating anxiety disorder that is associated with serious impairment in social and vocational functioning and increased risk of comorbid psychopathology. The disorder typically begins in adolescence and left untreated follows a chronic, unremitting course. Although little is currently known about the etiology of the condition, dramatic developments have been ma...

Locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can control events affecting them. Social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia, is the most common anxiety disorder. It is characterized by intense fear in one or more social situations. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between locus of control with anxiety and social phobia in adolescent’s...

This study examined significant others' expressed emotion (EE) and a closely related construct, perceived criticism, as predictors of cognitive-behavioral therapy outcome in a sample of 40 patients with social phobia (social anxiety disorder). Patients enrolled in group therapy for social phobia completed pre- and post-treatment questionnaire measures of perceived criticism and anxious and depr...

OBJECTIVE Problem solving and adjusting responses according to feedback are among the executive functions that may be impaired in social phobia patients. The objective of this study was to compare social phobia patients' Wisconsin Card Sorting Test scores with those of controls; thus, our aim was to examine executive functions in social phobia patients. METHOD The study included 36 social pho...

OBJECTIVE To analyse the severity of various symptoms and the developmental life history in social phobia. To estimate the value of ETS in the treatment of chronic social phobia. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Clinic for Psychoneurology and Surgery in Tampere, Finland. SUBJECTS Consecutive series of patients (n = 51). INTERVENTIONS Endoscopic thoracic sympathicotomy. MAIN OUTCOME M...