Luckily, a variety of treatments can help. Scores on a widely used test that measures social phobia, called the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, fell by 39.1 percent in the Paxil group compared with only 17.4 percent in patients given the placebo. In clinical practice, psychiatrists are discovering that other drugs similar to Paxil, including Serzone, Effexor, and Zoloft, can also effectively treat social phobia, says Lydiard. They seem to work only in people with serious social anxiety, according to Davidson. Paxil won't turn a normally shy person into a social butterfly, in other words.
Medication is only one approach.
Psychotherapy can also help. In behavioral therapy sessions, patients are put in anxiety-producing situations in order to defuse their fears. So it turns out that chatting about this problem does help, as more and more social phobia sufferers are discovering by going online to share their feelings with others. Several social phobia experts believe chat groups are useful to patients with the disorder. All rights reserved.