Posted by snapper on April 8, 2004, at 19:10:17
In reply to Re: SOCIAL ANXIETY, posted by theo on April 8, 2004, at 16:49:10
It depends on the kind of social anxiety that you suffer from. The ssri's are effective for a subset of the population. There are really two different types of social anxiety
1.Generalized-ie: socially anxious in most situations in which the sufferer may feel an unreasonable but yet intense fear that 'others are viewing him or her and scrutinizing them -when in fact they most likely are not!
2. Social anxiety that usually is very chronic in nature and has many traits of specific phobic avoidance.
The two may seem to overlap and while ssri's are 'effective for some'- MAOI's tend to be a better choice for the latter, but used much less often due to the significant differences in thier S/E profiles, benefits, and risks!(sorry if that sounds like a definition for Social Anxiety/Social Phobia -straight out of the DSM-IV. I just think it is important to treat the 'real diagnosis w/ the most effective med.I also think it's almost criminal that Zoloft and Paxil have FDA approved indications for treating this horrible and extremely disabling condition!)
snapper
poster:snapper
thread:334174
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040407/msgs/334266.html