Social Anxiety and Depression Stigma Among Adolescents

Background Little is known about social anxiety in MS. Objective We estimated the prevalence of social anxiety symptoms and their association with demographic and clinical features in a clinic-attending sample of patients with MS. Methods Patients attending the Dalhousie MS Research Unit for regularly scheduled visits completed the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Health Utilities Index (HUI). Neurological disability was determined by ratings on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Results A total of 251 patients completed self-report scales of anxiety and depression symptoms. In all, 245 (98%) provided sufficient data for analysis. In all, 30.6% ( n = 75) had clinically significant social anxiety symptoms as defined by a SPIN threshold score of 19. Half of those with social anxiety had general anxiety (HADSA ≥ 11) and a quarter had depression (HADSD ≥ 11). Severity of social anxiety symptoms was associated with reduced health-related quality of life and not related to neurological disability. Conclusions Social anxiety symptoms are common in persons with MS, contribute to overall morbidity, but are unrelated to the overall severity of neurologic disability. Greater awareness and routine systematic inquiry of social anxiety symptoms is an important component of comprehensive care for persons with MS.

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Treatment of social anxiety with paroxetine: mediation of changes in anxiety and depression symptoms

Comprehensive Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.comppsych.2008.06.009 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 135-141 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jared P. Dempsey ◽

Patrick K. Randall ◽

Suzanne E. Thomas ◽

Sarah W. Book ◽

Maureen H. Carrigan

Keyword(s):

Social Anxiety ◽

Anxiety And Depression ◽

Depression Symptoms

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Co-occurrence of social anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescence: differential links with implicit and explicit self-esteem?

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291711001358 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 475-484 ◽

Cited By ~ 50

Author(s):

P. J. de Jong ◽

B. E. Sportel ◽

E. de Hullu ◽

M. H. Nauta

Keyword(s):

Social Anxiety ◽

Predictive Validity ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Process Models ◽

Dual Process ◽

Anxiety And Depression ◽

Depression Symptoms ◽

Co Morbidity ◽

Evaluative Processes ◽

Implicit And Explicit

BackgroundSocial anxiety and depression often co-occur. As low self-esteem has been identified as a risk factor for both types of symptoms, it may help to explain their co-morbidity. Current dual process models of psychopathology differentiate between explicit and implicit self-esteem. Explicit self-esteem would reflect deliberate self-evaluative processes whereas implicit self-esteem would reflect simple associations in memory. Previous research suggests that low explicit self-esteem is involved in both social anxiety and depression whereas low implicit self-esteem is only involved in social anxiety. We tested whether the association between symptoms of social phobia and depression can indeed be explained by low explicit self-esteem, whereas low implicit self-esteem is only involved in social anxiety.MethodAdolescents during the first stage of secondary education (n=1806) completed the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) to measure symptoms of social anxiety and depression, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) to index explicit self-esteem and the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit self-esteem.ResultsThere was a strong association between symptoms of depression and social anxiety that could be largely explained by participants' explicit self-esteem. Only for girls did implicit self-esteem and the interaction between implicit and explicit self-esteem show small cumulative predictive validity for social anxiety, indicating that the association between low implicit self-esteem and social anxiety was most evident for girls with relatively low explicit self-esteem. Implicit self-esteem showed no significant predictive validity for depressive symptoms.ConclusionsThe findings support the view that both shared and differential self-evaluative processes are involved in depression and social anxiety.

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