Agoraphobia - Important Research Agoraphobia Important Research Agoraphobia, simple phobia, and social phobia in the National Comorbidity Survey. Analysis is based on the National Comorbidity Survey. Phobias were assessed with a revised version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Increasing lifetime prevalences are found in recent cohorts.
Phobias are highly comorbid.
Most comorbid simple and social phobias are temporally primary, while most comorbid agoraphobia is temporally secondary. Comorbid phobias are generally more severe than pure phobias. Despite evidence of role impairment in phobia, only a minority of individuals with phobia ever seek professional treatment. Phobias are common, increasingly prevalent, often associated with serious role impairment, and usually go untreated. Focused research is needed to investigate barriers to help seeking.