Agoraphobics and social phobics: differences in background factors, syndrome profiles and therapeutic response

Seventy-three agoraphobic and 31 social phobic women, all rated unsuitable for insight-oriented psychotherapy, were compared regarding family and personal history, intelligence, personality and factors pertaining to the disorder. The same patients, with 11 men included in the social phobic group, were also compared regarding response to four randomly assigned types of treatment given over a 3 month period, with a 9 months' follow-up. The following differences were revealed: 1) Social phobias were associated with a higher social class of the parental home, higher education, higher scores on verbal intelligence, and a higher social class of the patient. 2) Social phobics scored higher on the personality factor, aggressive non-conformance, otherwise there were no differences in the personality factor. 3) Agoraphobias were associated with mother working outside home during the patient's childhood, neurotic symptoms in childhood, and current economic difficulties. Agoraphobics more often gave experience of death as a cause of the disorder. 4) Social phobias started at an earlier age. 5) Target phobia and the global rating were of equal severity in the two syndromes, but the agoraphobics had higher ratings on free anxiety and depersonalization. 6) Social phobics responded better to prolonged exposure in vivo, while agoraphobics responded better to supportive therapy of dynamic type, or to a simple basal therapy. Social phobics more often wanted the therapists to give advice and guidance.