Prevalence of social phobia in a clinical sample of drug dependent patients.
BACKGROUND
Social phobia is among the most frequent psychiatric disorders and can be classified into two subtypes, nongeneralized and generalized. Whereas it significantly worsens the morbidity of comorbid substance abuse disorders, and it often is associated with reduced treatment responses, there is still lacking data on its prevalence in clinical populations of drug abusing patients.


METHODS
The study sample consisted of 75 inpatients and 75 outpatients meeting DSM-IV criteria for drug dependence. Symptoms of social phobia were assessed with the French-language version of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS).


RESULTS
Prevalence rate were 20% for the generalized subtype and 42.6% for the nongeneralized subtype. Gender difference emerged in the severity of fear, women reporting significantly greater fear relating to performance situations than men.


CONCLUSIONS
An important proportion of patients with substance dependence present a comorbid generalized or nongeneralized social phobia. Early recognition of social phobia and adequate interventions is warranted for these patients in order to improve their treatment response with regard to quality of life and relapse prevention.
Zimmermann
Grégoire
G
Substance Abuse Division, University Department of Adult Psychiatry, CH-1008 Prilly-Lausanne, Switzerland.
Pin
Marie A
MA
Krenz
Sonia
S
Bouchat
Adriana
A
Favrat
Bernard
B
Besson
Jacques
J
Zullino
Daniele F
DF
D000328:Adult; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D010045:Outpatients; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*