title: Social anxiety disorders in clinical practice: differentiating social phobia from avoidant personality disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To outline the problems around overlap between social phobia (SAD) and avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) and provide guidelines that may assist clinicians to differentiate these conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A constellation of symptoms can be identified that may distinguish AVPD from SAD, with key features being a strong and pervasively negative self-concept, a view of rejection as equating to a global evaluation of the individual as being of little worth and a sense of not fitting in socially that dates from early childhood. It is important to identify the presence of AVPD in order to anticipate potential problems with engagement and retention in therapy, to target treatment interventions and optimise outcome.
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer Discipline of Psychiatry, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, and CADE Clinic, Department of Academic Psychiatry, Level 3, Acute Services Building, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW, Australia lisa.lampe@sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lampe
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012649:Self Concept
keywords: DSM-5; avoidant personality disorder; social anxiety; social phobia