Anthropophobia: Its meaning and concomitant experiences

This study investigated the essential feature and concomitant experiences o f anthropophobia, a culturally specific phobic disorder in China and Japan. One hundred and fifty subjects, including 50 anthropophobic, 50 neurasthen ic and 50 normal subjects, were recruited from hospitals and downtown resid ential areas in Beijing. Measures of anthropophobic symptoms and DSM-III-R depressive and anxiety symptoms were administered to all subjects. Nonparam etric analysis of variance, analysis of variance (ANOVA and MANOVA) and Fis hers exact test were performed to examine group differences on each symptom atic item of the three measures. Results indicate that the core anthropopho bic symptoms include a fear of making eye contact with others and a fear of being watched by others, which essentially express fears of others' judgem ent or opinion of oneself. Anxiety and depression are associated features o f anthropophobia. However, these concomitants are experienced more cognitiv ely and less somatically in the case of anthropophobia than neurasthenia.