The clinical relevance of treating social phobia

Social phobia is an extreme fear of being scrutinized by others in social s ituations that often culminates in avoidance of those situations. Studies h ave demonstrated marked educational, occupational and social disabilities i n patients with social phobia. However, many sufferers do not seek help and are not detected when seeking medical advice for other conditions. The adv ent of a range of effective treatments, in particular the selective seroton in reuptake inhibitors, has substantially improved the prognosis in these s ufferers, both symptomatically and in terms of quality of life. (C) 1998 El sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.