title: Prevalence of social phobia in a clinical sample of drug dependent patients.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Substance Abuse Division, University Department of Adult Psychiatry, CH-1008 Prilly-Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Grégoire
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.forename: Marie A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pin
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Krenz
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bouchat
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Favrat
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Besson
authors.forename: Daniele F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Zullino
mesh_terms: 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*