Elsevier

Comprehensive Psychiatry

Volume 29, Issue 1, January–February 1988, Pages 72-75
Comprehensive Psychiatry

Family history of psychiatric disorders in social phobia

https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-440X(88)90039-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Relatives of panic patients (N = 471), normals (N = 46), and social phobics (N = 76) were compared on family histories of emotional disorders. Social phobics had significantly more relatives with social phobia than panic disorder relatives (6.6% v 0.4% P < .001) and there was a trend for social phobic relatives to be greater than normals in this diagnoses (6.6% v 2.2%, P = 0.1). Relatives of social phobics also had significantly fewer generalized anxiety disorders, panic disorders and alcohol abusers than relatives of panic disorder probands. These results lend further evidence toward confirming social phobia as a distinct entity and raise the possibility that it has familial components.

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    A possible pathway is through genetic transmission. Data from family studies have shown that first-degree relatives of patients with SAD manifest higher rates of SAD than relatives of normal control participants (Fyer, Mannuzza, Chapman, Liebowitz, & Klein, 1993; Reich & Yates, 1988). More recently, a study reported a significant association between SAD in probands and their relatives in contrast with a non-significant association between SAD in probands and panic disorder in relatives (Merikangas, Lieb, Wittchen, & Avenevoli, 2003), suggesting that factors leading to SAD are specific and differ from those linked to panic disorder.

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    There is, however, still some debate as to whether the disorder “breeds true” (i.e., the genetic risk is specific to the disorder), or if the genetic basis for the disorder is a broad trait that predisposes individuals to develop multiple disorders. Evidence obtained from some family studies suggests that the genetic vulnerability for SP may be specific to the disorder (Fyer, Mannuzza, Chapman, Liebowitz, & Klein, 1993; Reich & Yates, 1988); however, evidence from other types of studies suggests otherwise (e.g., Hettema et al., 2006; Mancini et al., 1996). For instance, “top down” family studies suggest that children of parents with SP are at increased risk for a number of other anxiety disorders in addition to SP (Mancini et al., 1996).

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Supported in part by a grant from the Upjohn Corporation, Kalamazoo, MI.

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