Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder
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Anxiety disorder is a group of mental health issues associated with feelings that are strong enough or of worry that interferes with the normal daily routine of a person. There are different types of anxiety disorders. Social Anxiety disorder is one of them. It is also referred to as social phobia whereby an individual with this condition exhibits a strong fear of interaction with people. The disorder makes a person insecure and makes them feel shy when socializing. For example, one may feel judged or even mocked by other people when trying to interact.
It is not difficult to diagnose social anxiety disorder (SAD) clinically yet it is not well understood. The cortico-limbic and cortico-striatal circuits contain the temporal brain structures such as the amygdala, striatum, prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. These structures are responsible for various cognitive and affective processes such as memory, attention, interpretation, judgement regarding ourselves and other people. People with SAD experience a situation where the circuits propel inaccurate suppositions in reaction to arbitrary images of human faces. Therefore, people having SAD have a system that is not only sensitive to dangerous stimuli but also to stimuli that is regarded to be affectively neutral (Hyett & McEvoy, 2018).
Further, patients with this disorder show high glutamate levels in the anterior cingulate cortex area of the brain.

It also shows some striatal dopamine and serotonin irregularities when matched to healthy individuals. Various candidate genes have been linked with SAD such as the serotonin transporter gene and a functional variant of ß-adrenergic receptor (ADRB1) gene (Gorka et al., 2015).
Social phobia disorder can be treated using different drugs which include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). In most cases, it is used as the first type of medication given to persistence symptoms of social anxiety. A doctor may recommend paroxetine (Paxil) or sertraline (Zoloft) to his patient. Social anxiety patient may also be given the serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) venlafaxine (Effexor XR). Other medications include Anti-anxiety medications for example Benzodiazepines its effect being to reduce anxiety although only used for short-term and Beta blockers which block the spur effect of adrenaline (Gorka et al., 2015).
References
Gorka, S. M., Fitzgerald, D. A., Labuschagne, I., Hosanagar, A., Wood, A. G., Nathan, P. J., & Phan, K. L. (2015). Oxytocin modulation of amygdala functional connectivity to fearful faces in generalized social anxiety disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology, 40(2), 278.
Hyett, M. P., & McEvoy, P. M. (2018). Social anxiety disorder: looking back and moving forward. Psychological medicine, 1-8.