Departamento de Neurociências e Ciências do Comportamento, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brasil.
Braz J Med Biol Res. 2011 Dec;44(12):1261-8. doi: 10.1590/s0100-879x2011007500137. Epub 2011 Oct 22.
The objective of the present study was to evaluate the response of social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients to threat scenarios. First-choice responses to 12 scenarios describing conspecific threatening situations and mean scores of defensive direction and defensive intensity dimensions were compared between 87 SAD patients free of medication and 87 matched healthy controls (HC). A significant gender difference in the first-choice responses was identified for seven scenarios among HCs but only for two scenarios among SAD patients. A significantly higher proportion of SAD patients chose "freezing" in response to "Bush" and "Noise" scenarios, whereas the most frequent response by HCs to these scenarios was "check out". SAD males chose "run away" and "yell" more often than healthy men in response to the scenarios "Park" and "Elevator", respectively. There was a positive correlation between the severity of symptoms and both defensive direction and defensive intensity dimensions. Factorial analysis confirmed the gradient of defensive reactions derived from animal studies. SAD patients chose more urgent defensive responses to threat scenarios, seeming to perceive them as more dangerous than HCs and tending to move away from the source of threat. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the physiopathology of anxiety disorders involves brain structures responsible for defensive behaviors.
本研究旨在评估社交焦虑障碍（SAD）患者对威胁情境的反应。比较了 87 名未用药 SAD 患者和 87 名匹配的健康对照者（HC）对 12 个描述同种威胁情境的场景的首选反应，以及防御方向和防御强度维度的平均得分。在 HC 中，有 7 个场景存在显著的性别差异，但在 SAD 患者中只有 2 个场景存在显著的性别差异。与 HC 相比，SAD 患者在“Bush”和“噪声”场景中更倾向于选择“冻结”，而 HC 对这些场景的最常见反应是“查看”。SAD 男性在“公园”和“电梯”场景中比健康男性更倾向于选择“逃跑”和“喊叫”。症状严重程度与防御方向和防御强度维度均呈正相关。因子分析证实了源自动物研究的防御反应梯度。SAD 患者对威胁情境选择更紧急的防御反应，似乎比 HC 更危险，并倾向于远离威胁源。这与焦虑障碍的病理生理学涉及负责防御行为的大脑结构的假设一致。
