Setting diagnostic thresholds for social phobia: considerations from a community survey of social anxiety

Abstract

Social anxiety is common in the community, but precise delineation of the prevalence of "social phobia" depends heavily on where the diagnostic threshold is set. If DSM-III-R criteria had been applied in previous epidemiologic studies, it is likely that those studies would have documented prevalences of social phobia that are several times as high as the currently accepted rates.