The utility of Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale in the patients with social anxiety disorder in Chinese / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Background During the past two decades, a number of rating scales were developed to facilitate diagnosis and assessment of subjects with social anxiety disorder. One of the most commonly used scales for the assessment of social anxiety disorder is the Liebowitz social anxiety scale (LSAS). The LSAS is widely used in epidemiologic investigations and clinical researches,and its assessment in the pharmacotherapy efficacy for social anxiety disorder is superior to any other scale. So we designed this study to explore the validity and reliability of the LSAS in Chinese patients with social anxiety disorder and normal control, and to find the difference of the scores between the patients self -report version and clinician-administered version. Methods Fifty five patients meeting the DSM-Ⅳ diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder and 168 normal controls who were screened from 222 college students were rated by LSAS, social phobia scale and self-made General Information Forms. Results The Cronbath α of LSAS for the patients and the normal controls was 0.83 and 0.77, respectively. The 4-week test-retest reliability for total scores and its factors scores of LSAS in 31 normal controls were ranging from 0.68 to 0.79. The ROC area under curve value in discriminating the patients from normal controls was 0.87±0.03; the total score of 35 was considered to be the best cut-off score for LSAS, then its sensitivity was 0.77 and its specificity was 0.81; and no significant difference between the self-report version and clinician-administered version. Conclusions The LSAS is good in internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and has high sensitivity and specificity in discriminating the patients and the controls. There is no significant difference in the total score and each factor scores of LSAS between self-report version and clinician-administered version.