Defining clinical subtypes in social phobia

The heterogeneity that characterizes Social Phobia (SP) has produced a heated debate in recent years which has led different authors to recommend the inclusion of different subtypes within this diagnostic category. In consequence, a first aim of this work was precisely to analyze how the subtypes proposed by Turner (Turner, Beidel & Townsley, 1992) and Heimberg (Heimberg & Holt, 1989) differentiated a sample diagnosed with SP in relevant psychopathological and clinical variables. Secondly, we set out to examine the utility of the situations listed in the ADIS-R (DiNardo et al., 1985) as heuristics in realizing SP typologies. Overall, the results of this study pointed out that, regardless of the classification taken into consideration, the participants who feared a broader range of social situations showed a higher degree of psychopathology. Finally, three possible SP subtypes were derived from the cluster analysis of the situations listed in the ADIS-R: Fear of Public Speaking, Restricted SP and Generalized SP.