Neurocognitive Functions in Social Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the neurocognitive functions of patients with social phobia and to examine the relation between these functions and the severity of the disease. Methods: The study was performed with 30 patients under monitoring with a diagnosis of social phobia at the Ondokuz Mayıs University Psychiatry Clinic and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Patients were assessed using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Both groups were administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Stroop Test, the Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), and the Trail Making Test (TMT) forms A and B, and the two groups’ neurocognitive performances were compared. Results: Social phobia patients exhibited significantly poorer performance than the control group in terms of total number of errors, number of perseverative errors and number of categories completed on the WCST, time taken to complete TMT forms A and B, time taken to complete the first, third, fourth and fifth parts of the Stroop test, and AVLT immediate recall scores. Positive correlation was determined in the patient group between LSAS subscores and time taken to complete the first, third and fourth parts of the Stroop test. Positive correlation was also determined between patients’ time taken to complete the fifth part of the Stroop test and LSAS avoidance and total scores. Conclusion: Greater impairment was observed in the attention, executive function and immediate recall performances of social phobia patients compared to the healthy controls