Social anxiety and depersonalization

Abstract

The purpose of the lecture is firstly to give a review of the relationship between social anxiety disorder (SAD) and depersonalization (DP) and secondly to present empirical data on the association between SAD and DP. Already one of the first descriptions of the SAD form Paul Schilder (1938, 1942) highlighted a close relationship between SAD and DP. This close relationship between SAD and DP comprises the issue of co-occurrence, phenomenological overlaps and psychodynamic relationships between both disorders (Michal et al. 2005). In the second part of the lecture we will present data from a representative study on the association between social anxieties and DP in the German population and from a study of the co-occurrence of social anxieties and DP in outpatients. According to the preliminary analysis of the first 4 months of 2006 40% of the outpatients and consultation liaison patients exceeded the cut-off of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and 15% exceeded the cut-off of the short version of the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale. The Chi-Square test revealed a significant relationship between both conditions (Chi-Square =42.928, df = 1, p<0.001). The representative study of 1250 persons of the German population is performed at present and will be finished at 30th November 2006. Therefore the results on the relationship between DP and SAD and intervening variables (depression, substance abuse, childhood experiences) will be described not yet but on the congress. The results will be discussed with regard to etiological and therapeutic aspects of SAD.