Severity of generalized social anxiety disorder correlates with low executive functioning

To evaluate neurocognitive functions of patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) without comorbidity using neuropsychological assessments and to investigate the relation between neurocognitive functions and clinical severity of SAD, this study assessed 30 SAD patients (10 female, 20 male) without comorbidity and 30 healthy subjects matched on gender, education level, and age. The neuropsychological assessment consisted of the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST), the continuous performance test, the trail-making test, the word fluency test, and the auditory verbal learning test. On the WCST, patients showed lower performance than healthy controls did. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale score correlated significantly with the numbers of perseverative errors of the WCST, although the State anxiety score of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory - Second Edition score showed no correlation with neuropsychological test scores. Results show that the executive functioning of patients with SAD was low and that the low functioning correlates with the SAD symptom severity.