Age of onset of social anxiety disorder and psychiatric and mental health outcomes: Results from a nationally representative study.

OBJECTIVE

Prior studies support that younger age of onset would be associated with poorer psychiatric and mental health outcomes for many psychiatric disorders. However, such relationship has never been examined for social anxiety disorder (SAD) in a nationally representative sample.

METHODS

Using data from the second Wave of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), we have identified four groups of participants with a lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis of SAD based on the self-reported age of onset (childhood onset (<12 years, N = 658), adolescence onset (12-17 years, N = 663), early-adulthood onset (18-39 years, N = 663), and late-adulthood onset (>39 years, N = 415)), and a control group without a lifetime history of SAD (N = 32,205). We performed multinomial logistic regression models to compare lifetime DSM-IV psychiatric disorders and current mental health-related quality of life (assessed with the mental component summary score (MSC) of the SF-12) across these groups.

RESULTS

The lifetime prevalence rates of panic disorder, agoraphobia and post-traumatic stress disorder were significantly higher in the adulthood onset groups than in groups with an onset during childhood or adolescence (p < 0.01 for most models). MCS score was significantly higher in the childhood (46.0 (SE = 0.5)) or adolescence (46.5 (SE = 0.5)) onset groups than in the groups with an onset during adulthood (early-adulthood onset: 43.5 (SE = 0.6), and late-adulthood onset: 43.0 (SE = 0.8)).

LIMITATIONS: Our results relied on retrospective self-reported data.

CONCLUSION

Among individuals with SAD, a later age of onset was significantly associated with greater lifetime rates of psychiatric disorders and diminished quality of life.