Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:637-639
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Major depression in patients with social phobia
MB Stein, ME Tancer, CS Gelernter, BJ Vittone and TW Uhde
Section on Anxiety and Affective Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
The authors examined the longitudinal course of affective illness
retrospectively in 63 patients with social phobia and 54 patients with
panic disorder. Significantly fewer (35%) of the patients with social
phobia than patients with panic disorder (63%) had experienced at least one
major depressive episode. Patients with generalized social phobia and
patients with specific social phobia had comparable past rates of major
depression (37% and 30%, respectively). The clinical and theoretical
implications of these findings are discussed within the context of current
concepts regarding the development of depressive symptoms in patients with
anxiety disorders.
