Alcoholics with and without social phobia: A comparison of substance use and psychiatric variables

Objective: While alcoholics with social phobia comprise a substantial porti on of the alcoholic population, little is known about how they differ from alcoholics without social phobia in their substance use and psychiatric hea lth. The present study was conducted to examine baseline differences betwee n alcoholics with and without social phobia on substance use and psychiatri c variables. Method: Alcoholics without social phobia (n = 397) were chosen to match those with social phobia (n = 397) on several variables, includin g age and gender. All subjects were participants in Project MATCH, a large clinical client-treatment matching study. Results: Exploratory/Confirmatory analyses revealed that alcoholics with social phobia had higher scores on the alcohol dependence scale and endorsed more dependence symptoms on the S CID, although they did not drink greater amounts or more often than alcohol ics without social phobia. They also reported drinking in order to improve sociability and enhance functioning more than did the comparison group. Alc oholics with social phobia were more likely to conform to social norms than alcoholics without social phobia. They also had more symptoms of depressio n as indicated by higher scores on the Beck Depression Inventory and higher incidence of a major depressive episode from the C-DIS. Conclusions: Alcoh olics with social phobia enter treatment with some problems that are more s evere than those expressed by alcoholics without social phobia. Whether the se problems affect treatment efficacy is an important area for future resea rch.