Social Anxiety Disorder editors H.G.M. Westenberg J.A. den Boer

Social
Anxiety
Disorder
editors
H.G.M. Westenberg
J.A. den Boer
 
focus on psychiatry

ISBN 90 73637 45 7

The growing interest in social anxiety disorder, evidenced by an increasing number of clinical studies in recent years, has led to a keener awareness of the scale of disability that results from this condition. Rooted in a fear of negative evaluation, social anxiety disorder has its onset at a critical stage of life when interpersonal relationships are gaining importance for the individual. Most sufferers develop harmful coping strategies that can have detrimental effects on their interpersonal development, educational attainment and career progression.
Unfortunately, most such people share the popular view that what they are experiencing is just shyness, rather than a serious, and treatable, medical condition.
This may explain the low rate of presentation to health care providers. Now that effective treatments for social anxiety disorder are available, it is important to heighten the awareness of this condition amongst health care providers and to help patients to overcome their barriers to seeking help.
This book provides up-to-date information that will deepen our understanding of social anxiety disorder. The expert contributors address important topics such as the nature, epidemiology, neurobiology and treatment of the disorder. Separate chapters are devoted to behavioural therapies and drug treatment. The development of the disorder during childhood and adolescence and the influence of environmental factors on the acquisition of social anxiety disorder are also examined. Special attention is given to comorbidity and its effects on disease management.
It is our hope that a better understanding of social anxiety disorder will strengthen the efforts to diagnose and treat this disabling condition effectively.
Social anxiety disorder is also known as social phobia. For a rationale for using social anxiety disorder as the preferred term, we would like to refer to a publication by the International Consensus Group on
Depression and Anxiety ( Clinical Psychiatry, 1998 vol 59; supp 17: 3).