The neurobiology of social phobia

Although Social Phobia has been recognised for centuries in comparison with other anxiety disorders, relatively little work has been done to understan d its neural basis. The present review attempts to redress this balance by giving an overview of the current state of knowledge in this disorder. By p utting together data from the treatment responses to specific agents, the e ffects of chemical challenges which have been used in other anxiety disorde rs and by reviewing data on central and peripheral neurotransmitter and end ochrine abnormalities, it is possible to begin to generate some potentially testable theories of aetiology and mechanisms. Finally, we review the pote ntial use of neuroimaging techniques to better detail the brain circuits an d possibly neurotransmitters involved in social phobia, showing some of our preliminary work using O-15 water blood flow PET activation studies to det ermine the brain circuits in which metabolism is changed during the experie nce of social anxiety.