Social Phobia in Patients with Alcohol Dependence

Overview

Social phobia is a common anxiety disorder characterised by marked fear and diskomfort insituations involving possible scrutiny or evaluating by others. The condition is associated withconsiderable impairment of function and a great deal of comorbidity like depression or alcoholdependence. The purpose of this study was to determine symptoms of social phobia in alcoholics.Subjects included 100 patients, 60 male and 40 female, who met DSM-IV criteria for alcoholdependence. Diagnosis of social phobia was established by a psychiatric interview and also according to DSM-IV. Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and Sheehan Disability Scale evaluated symptomsand psychosocial adaptation of patients. We determined the symptoms of social phobia in alcoholics, 19 per cent of them having this diagnosis. Epidemiological and clinical evidence suggestsa relationship between social phobia and alcoholism, with our study showing that social phobiaoften precedes alcohol problems.

Key words:
social phobia, anxiety disorders, alcohol dependence.