Mental health articles

social phobia diagnosis
Social phobia was first identified in the DSM system with the publication of DSM-III, although it had been described clinically by a number of authors well before this time. Social phobia is described as a fear and/or avoidance of situations involving the possibility of scrutiny by others. It is diagnosed reliably and demonstrates good diagnostic agreement between clinicians based on DSM-III-R criteria. In addition to research into social phobia as a clinical disorder, there has been extensive investigation for many years into the nature of social anxiety in nonclinical populations. This extensive literature is likely to have major relevance for the clinical disorder of social phobia because some researchers have noted that the two lie along a continuum of severity. Thus, much can be learned about the clinical disorder, social phobia, by examining research into social anxiety in nonclinical populations.

Tags: diagnosis, DSM, phobia, social phobia