From time to time we see sceptical posts on blogs which argue that Social Anxiety Disorder is just shyness and by inference is just a normal human emotion that should be endured and not treated. Naming it social phobia or social anxiety disorder is argued to create a market for new pharmaceutical drugs.
In the last couple of days this sort of comment has turned up in post by Sarah Frostenson on thedartmouth.com in a review of a new documentary by filmmaker Liz Canner (
http://thedartmouth.com/2009/05/18/arts/film/)
“Orgasm, Inc.” draws attention to how drug companies market their products. In a clever use of text and digital animation, Canner demonstrates the proliferation of those endless acronyms — “Social Anxiety Disorder” for “shyness” and “Restless Leg Syndrome” for “creepy crawly leg.” Canner shows that there is a profit of many billions to be made in convincing healthy people they are sick.”
I’m quoting from this post and I’d encourgae you to read the whole post. I’ve not seen the film and I’m only hoping to reply to content of the post and its implications.
Social Phobia and Social Anxiety Disorder are mental disorders as defined by the American Psychiatric Association and The World Health Organisation because there is an agreed set of symptoms that describe a unique human experience, and that set of symptoms is associated with significant distress, disability and effects everyday life. At this stage social anxiety disorder is a syndrome in that there is an agreed set of symptoms that describe the disorder but there is no widely agreed underlying processs that causes the the disorder. There is no blood or laboratory test to make the diagnosis - the diagnosis is made when the symptoms are present. This does not take away from the “realness” of the disorder. The distress and impairment that go with social anxiety disorder show that it has real impacts on people.
Social Anxiety Disorder is common. In Australia in 2007 it has been estimated that 4.7% of Adults (3.8% of men & 5.7% of women) experienced Social Anxiety Disorder in the past 12 months
( http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/6AE6DA447F985FC2CA2574EA00122BD6/$File/43260_2007.pdf ). Sometimes Common and Normal are confused.
In women Social Phobia has been estimated to be the 24th most burdensome health problem causing 0.9% of the total burden of all health problems for women in Australia (see
http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/phe/bdia/). For men Social Phobia is ranked as the 37th most burdensome problem casuing 0.6% of the total. Burden here combines the impact of death and disability so that the impact of different health problems can be compared.
How useful are terms like social phobia and social anxiety disorder? They are useful for researchers and clinicians to more specifically define problems. For many people who are very shy, finding out that there is a name that describes much of what they have experienced helps them not to feel alone.
The studies I’ve linked to above and my expereince as a clinical psychologist leads me to be confident that people who have the symptoms of social anxiety disorders are distressed and the disorder is having a big impact on their lives. So I don’t beleive Social Anxiety disorder was invented by drug companies to sell their drugs.
Andrew
