title: Can the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale - self-report version be used to differentiate clinical and non-clinical SAD groups among Brazilians?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) was the first evaluation instrument developed for screening for the signs and symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and is currently still the most used worldwide. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of the LSAS - self-report version (LSAS-SR) to discriminate different Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) clinical groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample was composed of Brazilians university students, allocated into three different groups, i.e., cases (C=118), non-cases (NC=95) and subclinical cases (SC=39). To achieve the aim, calculations of the ROC Curve and ANOVA were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results found were excellent regardless of the technique used, highlighting the discriminatory capacity of the LSAS-SR. The score equal to or greater than 32 is suggested as a cutoff score for the Brazilian population, since this presented balance between the standards evaluated and the ability to differentiate both clinical and subclinical SAD cases from non-cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the specific sample used in this study being composed only of university students, the use of the LSAS-SR can be indicated, in the Brazilian setting, for SAD screening in both clinical and research contexts.
authors: Department of Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto-USP, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors: Larissa F
authors: LF
authors: Santos
authors: Department of Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto-USP, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil; National Institute of Technology and Translational Medicine-CNPq, Brazil.
authors: Sonia R
authors: SR
authors: Loureiro
authors: Department of Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto-USP, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil; National Institute of Technology and Translational Medicine-CNPq, Brazil.
authors: José A S
authors: JA
authors: Crippa
authors: Department of Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto-USP, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil; National Institute of Technology and Translational Medicine-CNPq, Brazil.
authors: Flávia L
authors: FL
authors: Osório
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019540:Area Under Curve; D001938:Brazil; D003710:Demography; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D055815:Young Adult