Drugs for Shyness Accused of Medicalising Human Behaviour

The NHS drugs rationing body is to investigate whether anti-depressants should be given to those suffering from acute shyness, it emerged yesterday.

The Department of Health has ordered a review into treatments available for ‘social anxiety disorder’ – a condition that leaves sufferers terrified at the prospect of public speaking, talking to strangers or even going to parties.

In extreme cases, victims suffer panic attacks, blushing and sweats in any social situation.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which is heading the review, claims that one in eight will suffer from the disorder during their lifetime.

The body has previously come under fire for advising health authorities that they should not fund drugs for a range of patients including those suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

The growing use of drugs to treat extreme shyness has alarmed some experts who say pharmaceutical companies and doctors are ‘medicalising’ normal human behaviour.

The concept of ‘social anxiety disorder’ or ‘social phobia’ has entered mainstream medicine in the last couple of decades after the drugs industry began to promote it.

To read this Daily Mail article in full, please click here. 

There have been 0 replies to this Article. + Post your comment here.