PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF SOCIAL PHOBIA - EFFECTS OF SUBTYPE AND OF AVOIDANTPERSONALITY-DISORDER

The effects of social phobia subtypes and of comorbid avoidant persona lity disorder (APD) on the symptoms of 45 outpatients with a primary d iagnosis of social phobia were examined. Generalized social phobic sub jects with (GSP-APD, n = 16) and without APD (GSP-NAPD, n = 13) report ed greater social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation than specifi c social phobic subjects without APD (SSP-NAPD, n = 16). Compared to S SP-NAPD clients, GSP-APD clients tended to exhibit poorer social skill s during behavioral testing and were more likely to be unmarried and t o use medication. GSP-APD subjects were more depressed than both SSP-N APD and GSP-NAPD subjects, while non-APD groups did not differ. The re sults showed that both social phobia subtype and APD comorbidity contr ibuted to the differences found among the three subgroups of social ph obic clients.