The clinical relevance of treating social phobia.

Social phobia is an extreme fear of being scrutinized by others in social situations that often culminates in avoidance of those situations. Studies have demonstrated marked educational, occupational and social disabilities in patients with social phobia. However, many sufferers do not seek help and are not detected when seeking medical advice for other conditions. The advent of a range of effective treatments, in particular the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, has substantially improved the prognosis in these sufferers, both symptomatically and in terms of quality of life.