Personality disorders and features in social phobia and panic disorder

The hypothesis that there is a specific relationship between social phobia (SP) and avoidant personality disorder (APD) was investigated. Using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders, we screened 32 patients with SP and 85 patients with panic disorder (PD) for the presence of personality disorders. Avoidant features were found significantly more often in SP than in PD, although the diagnosis of APD could not be established significantly more often. On the item level, APD Criterion 6 (fears being embarrassed) discriminated the strongest. Social phobics appeared to be more disturbed on Axis II than PD patients.