Anxiety Disorders: Social Anxiety Disorder and Specific Phobia

Phobias are the most common of the anxiety disorders and are among the most common of all mental disorders. The introduction of social phobia to the diagnostic nomenclature has led to a slow but steady increase in research on the disorder, so that social phobia has now become a popular topic of study among researchers on anxiety disorders. Social anxiety disorder and specific phobia have both overlapping and distinguishing diagnostic and clinical features. This chapter reviews the definitions and diagnostic features of the disorders as well as assessment methods. An overview of the clinical features of the disorders includes their epidemiology, comorbidity patterns, and course. The chapter provides a review of etiological pathways and pathophysiology. This is followed by another review of somatic and psychosocial treatments for social anxiety disorder and specific phobia.