Quality of life in anxiety and social phobia.

Most studies on anxiety including social phobia have measured social adjustment behavior rather than quality of life (i.e. the subjective perception of the patient of his or her illness in relation to different domains). These social adjustment studies have found panic disorders to be more disabling than social phobia. However, quality of life was measured in terms of subjective well-being or satisfaction, and the Zürich study showed that patients with social phobia had less well-being in domains of friends, partner and childhood memories than patients with other anxiety or mood disorders. It is concluded that shyness has a great impact on quality of life.