Avoidant Personality Disorder and Social Phobia: does mindreading make the difference?

Avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) is closely related to and partially overlaps with social phobia (SP). There is an ongoing debate as to whether AvPD and SP can be classified as separate and distinct disorders or whether these diagnoses rather reflect different degrees of severity of social anxiety. The hypothesis of this study is that in patients with AvPD and in those with AvPD and comorbid SP both interpersonal functioning and metacognitive abilities (the ability to understand mental states) are more severely impaired than they are in patients with SP only.

Source: Comprehensive Psychiatry - September 28, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Giovanni Pellecchia, Fabio Moroni, Livia Colle, Antonio Semerari, Antonino Carcione, Teresa Fera, Donatella Fiore, Giuseppe Nicol ò, Roberto Pedone, Michele Procacci Source Type: research