University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Behav Res Ther. 2017 Jul;94:9-18. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2017.04.008. Epub 2017 Apr 18.
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) and alcohol use disorders (AUD) co-occur frequently and there is preliminary evidence that alcohol might reduce social anxiety. It is, however, unclear which mechanisms contribute to the anxiety reducing effect, particularly regarding key aspects of social anxiety such as deficits in social performance. We compared self-rated and physiological measures of anxiety as well as self- and observer-rated social performance in a sample of 62 individuals with SAD and 60 nonanxious control participants during a speech task after receiving either alcohol, an alcohol-free placebo drink or orange juice. SAD patients reported more anxiety during the speech task than did control participants. Furthermore, SAD patients underestimated their performance in comparison to observer ratings. Alcohol reduced self-report anxiety only in SAD patients, while observers rated all participants as less competent when intoxicated. Although individuals with SAD experience a reduction in anxiety when drinking alcohol, simultaneous decreases in social performance might contribute to negative reactions from others and consequently increase the risk of further alcohol use to cope with these negative reactions.
社交焦虑障碍（SAD）和酒精使用障碍（AUD）经常同时发生，有初步证据表明酒精可能会减轻社交焦虑。然而，目前尚不清楚哪些机制促成了这种减轻焦虑的效果，特别是对于社交焦虑的关键方面，如社交表现缺陷。我们在一项包含 62 名 SAD 患者和 60 名非焦虑对照参与者的样本中，比较了在接受酒精、无酒精安慰剂饮料或橙汁后进行演讲任务期间，自我报告和生理焦虑测量以及自我和观察者评估的社交表现。与对照组参与者相比，SAD 患者在演讲任务中报告的焦虑感更强烈。此外，与观察者的评估相比，SAD 患者低估了自己的表现。酒精仅在 SAD 患者中减轻了自我报告的焦虑，而观察者在醉酒时则认为所有参与者的能力都有所下降。尽管 SAD 患者在饮酒时会感到焦虑减轻，但社交表现的同时下降可能会导致他人的负面反应，从而增加进一步饮酒以应对这些负面反应的风险。
