Social phobia and avoidant personality disorder as related to parental history of social anxiety: a general population study

Using a validated and DSM-IV compatible questionnaire, the present study re lated family history of excessive social anxiety to social phobia and avoid ant personality disorder (APD) in epidemiologically identified probands in the general population. Probands met diagnostic criteria for social phobia with or without APD and APD with or without social phobia. A two- to three- fold increased relative risk of social anxiety was observed for all diagnos tic groups. Increasing severity in probands by varying diagnostic criteria did not affect the relative risk. Because familial aggregation of social an xiety was not modulated by Axis I or II diagnosis or diagnostic cut-off lev els, data imply that social phobia and APD may represent a dimension of soc ial anxiety rather than separate disorders. Thus, having an affected family member is associated with a two- to three-fold risk increase for both soci al phobia and APD. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.