Comorbidity of Social Anxiety Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Despite high rates of reported comorbidity in patients with social anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder comorbidity was not evaluated in these studies. Studies, investigating the prevalence of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) comorbidity in social anxiety disorder are limited and little is known about it. The reason for this may be the fact that, ADHD have been seen as a childhood disease over a period of time. In the prospective studies ,it is reported that ADHD is often observed in the adulthood and effects persist . On the other hand, studies on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, higher rates of social anxiety disorder comorbidity have been reported. The presence of comorbid anxiety disorder increases the risk of impulsive feature in ADHD, causes problems in functionality, impaired compliance and resistance to the treatment. The aim of this article is to investigate the the status of social anxiety disorder and ADHD comorbidity and to discuss the hypothesis of antidepressant-associated hypomanic shift due to antidepressant treatment in social anxiety disorder patients. [Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar - Current Approaches in Psychiatry 2014; 6(1.000): 10-21]

Keywords

• Social anxiety disorder
• attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• bipolar disorder