Social anxiety in insulin-dependent diabetic girls

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of social anxiety and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (n = 40 girls between 13 and 19 years of age). Mean duration of diabetes was 7 years. We supposed that this chronic illness may provoke feelings of friendlessness and sadness, social withdrawal and fear of social situations because diabetes entails a series of demands which differentiate the diabetic child from healthy children. Our population was compared with 35 healthy young girls. All were administered the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age-Children and completed the State Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, the Self-Consciousness Scale and the Imaginary Audience Scale. Diagnoses of anxiety disorders across DSM-IIIR do not show significant differences between groups. In self-report inventories, our findings do not support the hypothesis that social anxiety is a pathological symptom in diabetic subjects. However, they were more depressed than the control group. Furthermore, social functioning of the diabetic group did not differ from that of the control group. They were more concerned with their illness than with social anxiety.