A comparison of publication trends on avoidant personality disorder and social phobia

The objective of this study was to ascertain the number of articles published per annum on the topics of avoidant personality disorder (APD) and social phobia (SP) in the period from 1973 to 2001. We hypothesized that while annual publication rates on SP would exhibit a sound growth, the number of scientific articles on APD published per annum would present a stagnant or declining trend. We performed a comprehensive literature review on APD and SP using the three largest existing databases for medical and psychological journals: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science. The references were gathered by means of the Reference Manager version 9.5 software and transferred to an SPSS version 10 database for statistical analysis. The data were then input into regression models with the goal of predicting future growth of the scientific literature in these areas. The number of journal articles published annually on SP has steadily increased in the period from 1973 (1 article) to 2001 (118 articles). In contrast, the production of scientific literature on APD peaked in 1986 (5 articles) and subsequently declined. During the last decade reviewed, an average of fewer than two articles on APD was published per annum. Given the declining trend identified in this study, we believe that it is unlikely that the publication of scientific articles on APD will provide the empirical evidence required to validate this disorder in a foreseeable future. The permanence of APD on the rolls of the personality disorders should therefore be reassessed.