Specific phobia: a transversal study with one hundred and three outpatients

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The study was designed to investigate the presence of specific phobias (SP) among psychiatric outpatients. METHODS: A transversal study was carried out in which SCID-I was applied to 103 patients to determine the occurrence of specific phobia. The data were reviewed through descriptive measures and independence tests based on Pearson's chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Specific phobias were found in 26.2% of the patients. Females were twice as likely as males to present SP. In 96.3% of the phobic patients SP had not been diagnosed by their psychiatrists and thus was not being treated. The most common comorbidities among these patients was depression, which was present in 15.6% of the sample. Overall, 39 different phobias were identified: 13 of the animal type, 12 of the natural environment type, 3 of the blood-injection-injury type, and 11 of the situational type. CONCLUSIONS: SP has a high frequency among outpatients and is more common among women. Most of the times, however, this disorder is not diagnosed and thus is not properly treated, as the focus remains on the comorbidities.