J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc.  2008 May;47(3):225-229.

Subtypes of Social Phobia and Clinical Implication of Offensive Subtype

• Oh KS
• Lim SW

Abstract

The prevalence rate of Social Phobia (Social anxiety disorder) varies among cultures and patient populations. Possible reasons for this differences are that the expression of social anxiety may differ according to cultures. It has been suggested that offensive type of social phobia (which is similar with taijin kyofusho; a kind of culture-bound syndrome in DSM-IV) exist in east-asian countries, especially Korea and Japan, and it shares many common aspect with the western concept of social phobia. It is important to consider cultural influences of social phobia and understand various clinical presentations of this disorder. In this paper, the authors reviewed current diagnostic classification of diverse social phobia subtype and relationship among subtypes and also suggested the offensive type as a subtype of social phobia.

Keyword

Social phobia; Subtype; Culture; Offensive subtype

MeSH Terms

Anxiety
Humans
Japan
Korea
Phobic Disorders
Prevalence