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Social Phobia Is Associated with Delayed Onset of Chickenpox, Measles, and Mumps Infections

Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross1, Aleksandra Aleksandrowicz2, Stephanie Rodgers2

  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.

Frontiers in Psychiatry
|January 14, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Delayed common viral childhood diseases, such as measles and chickenpox, were associated with social phobia. This finding suggests a link between the timing of infections and the development of early anxiety disorders.

Area of Science:

  • Childhood developmental psychology
  • Epidemiology of mental health disorders
  • Infectious disease research

Background:

  • Growing evidence links childhood infectious diseases to neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders.
  • The temporal relationship between common childhood illnesses and anxiety disorders requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the timing of common childhood diseases in relation to early-onset anxiety disorders.
  • To explore potential associations between specific viral infections and social phobia.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of data from the Swiss Population Cohort Study (PsyCoLaus, N=3720).
  • Regression analysis correlating the age of onset of viral childhood diseases (chickenpox, measles, mumps) with specific anxiety disorders (social phobia, separation anxiety disorder, specific phobias).
  • Statistical adjustments for other anxiety disorders and sex.

Main Results:

  • A delayed onset of viral childhood diseases was consistently observed in individuals with social phobia.
  • This association was noted in both male and female participants.
  • No evidence suggested that phobia symptoms preceded the onset of the studied infections.

Conclusions:

  • Social phobia emerged as the sole early-onset anxiety disorder associated with a delayed onset of common viral childhood diseases.
  • The findings highlight a potential etiological link between the timing of viral infections and the development of social phobia.
Abstract

Keywords:
anxiety disorderschildhood diseasesepidemiologyinfectious diseasessocial phobia

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