Social Anxiety Disorder in College Students, Diagnosis, Prevention, and Effects
Travis Markum

SAD, DIAGNOSIS, PREVENTION, AND EFFECTS
Abstract
This paper analyzes scholarly articles and the book looking at college students who experience a form of a generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) called social anxiety disorder (SAD). Looking at relationship between transient versus permanent SAD in college students through various articles, the paper will try to understand how SAD importance truly is to college students. The paper will also look at three scholarly articles that discuss the use of MINI-SPIN (MS) derived from Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) as a potential quick screening level for SAD in college students. The articles varied in their technical calling of SAD and also used different diagnostic tools to estimate its prevalence, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HASQ), and HIM-IND. This paper also touches on the need diagnosing early stage of social anxiety disorder (SAD) to prevent its commordity and other negative impacts by looking at two scholarly articles.

Keywords: General anxiety disorder, Social anxiety disorder, college student

SAD, DIAGNOSIS, PREVENTION, AND EFFECTS
Social anxiety disorder in College Students: Diagnosis, Prevention, and Effects
College students increased reports of severe mental problems to counseling services in Britain and the United States sparked research interest to discover association between mental disorders and college students (Osório 2007). One of the first significant scientific research done was by The Royal College of Psychiatrists, in 2003, claiming that student’s reported more mental health disorders than aged-matched controls. The main disorder observed in college student mental health literature is depression; however, anxiety disorders can also play a large part in the mental health of a college student. The feeling of anxiety people suffering from General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) experiences continues even when one is in a situation that is not dangerous or uncertain (Wade & Tavris, 2002 p.338). Research done on mental disorders and college students often do not take into account differentiation between depression disorder, GAD, and GAD specific disorders, such as SAD. The articles used in this paper typically did not considered longevity and used different diagnostic tools to screen for mental disorders which lead to contradictory results observed between the articles used in this paper. To understand the impact of diagnosing, treating, and preventing SAD in college students, a proper diagnosis tool needs to be developed and more extensive research needs to be done in the subject. This paper examines seven scholarly articles and the book to evaluate the evidence of permanent SAD prevalence in college students and assess the current literature on the subject.
Literature Review
College life is filled with deadlines, worries about future employment, debt, and other social problems- all of which are anxiety inducing. The main characteristic of GAD in Wade and Travis’s (2002) book is “a continuous state of anxiety marked by feelings of worry and dread,
SAD, DIAGNOSIS, PREVENTION, AND EFFECTS apprehension, difficulties in concentration, and signs of motor tension” (pp.338). Typically, GAD occurs for a period of six months and is not brought on by physical cause, such as disease, drugs, or caffeine (Wade & Travis pp.338). The most recognized symptoms of GAD include: “irritability, muscle tension, jitteriness, sleep disturbance and disbursing, unwanted, intrusive worries” (Wade & Travis pp.338). GAD can affect people with or without having gone through any specific anxiety producing events (Wade and Travis pp.338). There are various kinds of GAD, such as, chronic anxiety, panic disorder, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder