Stigma, social anxiety, and illness severity in bipolar disorder: Implications for treatment

Studies indicate that comorbid anxiety disorders predict a more severe course of illness in bipolar disorder (BD). The relatively high prevalence of social anxiety in BD points to the potential role that socio-cultural factors, such as stigma, play in exacerbating the progression of this disorder. Stigma creates social anxiety in affected individuals because it essentially forces them into a vulnerable social status that is marked by public disgrace. Although the etiology of debilitating social anxiety in BD may involve multiple factors, stigma deserves particular clinical attention because research in this area indicates that it is common and its internalization is associated with poor outcome.

We conducted a literature review using search terms related to stigma, social anxiety, bipolar disorder, illness severity, and outcomes. The electronic databases searched included PsychINFO, PubMed, JSTOR, and EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete with limits set to include articles published in English.

The literature indicates that internalized stigma often triggers the core psychological experiences of social anxiety and is highly correlated with clinical and functional outcome in BD. On a psychological level, internalized stigma and social anxiety can create distress that triggers symptoms of BD. From a biological perspective, stigma constitutes a chronic psychosocial stressor that may interact with the pathophysiology of BD in inflammatory ways.

The connection between stigma and social anxiety, and their combined effects on people with BD, carries important implications for psychiatric care. To obtain an accurate clinical formulation, initial evaluations may seek to examine stigma-related experiences and determine their relationship to anxiety symptoms and psychosocial functioning. In addition, direct interventions for reducing the ill effects of stigma in BD deserve clinical attention, because they may carry the potential to enhance outcomes.