An Overview of Recent Findings on Social Anxiety Disorder in Adolescents and Young Adults at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis

Abstract

Background: Some studies have shown that anxiety is particularly frequent in the Clinical High Risk (CHR) for psychosis population. Notably, social anxiety disorder is identified as one of the most common anxiety disorders in CHR adolescents and young adults. Despite this, the frequency and the clinical significance of social anxiety in this population have been underestimated. Methods: A selective review of literature published between 2011 and 2017 on social anxiety disorder in CHR adolescents and young adults. Results: Five studies are included. In particular, three studies demonstrated that CHR adolescents and young adults have higher levels of anxiety compared to controls. Furthermore, anxiety, including social anxiety, is related to the severity of psychotic symptoms. The other studies included show inconsistent results regarding the possible relationship between social anxiety and social functioning. Conclusions: To date, the eidence concerning the comorbidity of social anxiety disorder and CHR in adolescents and young adults is not sufficient to provide clear guidelines for clinical practice. Future longitudinal studies on larger samples of the CHR adolescents and young adults are required to examine the relationship between social anxiety disorder and the presence of attenuated psychotic symptomatology.

Associations between schizotypal personality features, mentalizing difficulties and thought problems in a sample of community adolescents

“…Our findings suggest that schizotypal trait features pertaining to social anxiety and odd speech are associated to the level of thought problems in our community adolescent sample. The association between social anxiety and thought problems in the current sample is in line with previous research indicating that social anxiety relates to the severity of psychotic symptoms in CHR adolescents and young adults (Pontillo et al, 2017). Our data are also in line with previous studies reporting that disorganized speech relates to thought problems in both chronic psychosis and non-clinical samples (Sommer et al, 2010).…”

A Neurodevelopment Approach for a Transitional Model of Early Onset Schizophrenia

“…Overall, children and adolescents with APS presented a pattern of neurodevelopmental impairment and clinical complexity similar to patients with SCZ spectrum disorders; these results support the neurodevelopmental hypothesis and highlight the need of longitudinal studies focusing on the assessment of other clinical markers of SCZ in children and adolescents with APS specifically. Markers to consider could be the presence of abnormalities in developmental domains (psychomotor, language, and reading/writing skills), the presence of childhood trauma or an early diagnosis of non-psychotic psychiatric disorder like Social Anxiety Disorder or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder [ 64 , 65 ].…”

Motivation Research on the Content Creation Behaviour of Young Adults in Anxiety Disorder Online Communities

“…In recent years, due to various social work and life pressures, an increasing number of individuals have been found to suffer from mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and others; mental illnesses tend to affect younger people [1]. Many young adults suffer from anxiety disorders [2], especially in large cities, because their stress-bearing abilities are limited. Once the level of anxiety exceeds one's ability to cope, self-harm and suicide attempts may occur [3].…”

“…Posting and commenting are the main avenues by which users participate in online communities, and they are also key to maintaining the success of such communities. The proportion of anxiety patients among young people is gradually increasing [2]. Young adults have become the main demographic responsible for content creation in online health communities [7].…”