Factors related to the association of social anxiety disorder and alcohol use among adolescents: a systematic review

Objective: To identify the risk factors related to the association between social anxiety disorder and alcohol use in adolescents. Source of data: The PICO research strategy was used to perform a systematic review in Medline, LILACS, Pubmed, IBECS and Cochrane Library databases. DeCS/MeSH: Phobic Disorders, Adolescent, Behavior, Ethanol, Risk Factors, and the Boolean operator “AND” were used. Inclusion criteria were: cross‐sectional, prospective/retrospective cohort, and case‐control studies, carried out in adolescents (10 to 19 years), original articles on social anxiety disorder and alcohol use published between 2010 and 2015. Studies that did not report the terms “anxiety disorder” and “alcohol use” in the title and abstract were excluded. Synthesis of data: 409 articles were retrieved; after the exclusion of 277 repeated articles, the following were eligible: 94 in MEDLINE, 68 in Pubmed, 12 in IBCS, and three in LILACS. Titles and abstracts were independently read by two examiners, which resulted in the selection of eight articles for the analysis. Risk factors associated to the two disorders were female gender, age, peer approval and affective problems for alcohol use, confrontation situations and/or compliance reasons, frequency of alcohol use, and secondary comorbidities, such as depression and generalized anxiety. Conclusions: It is necessary to assess the period of social anxiety disorders first symptom onset, as well as the risks for alcohol use in order to establish corrective intervention guidelines, especially for socially anxious students