ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the features of sustained attention in the patients with social anxiety disorder and their first degree relatives.Methods 60 cases of normal controls,58 cases of patients with social anxiety disorder and 68 cases of their first degree relatives were performed with continuous performance test.Results In reaction time task(a simple performance),all of CPT parameters in patient group (number of cancel (5.2±6.9),number of omission(6.7± 13.6),reaction time(421.0± 112.0) ms,variance coefficient(47.3±38.1) ％)were higher than those in the first degree relatives group(number of cancel (2.9± 3.3),number of omission (1.5±2.1),reaction time (342.0±47.0) ms,variance coefficient(28.9± 10.1) ％) and controlled group (number of cancel (2.8 ± 2.9),number of omission (1.3 ± 0.7),reaction time (329.0 ± 53.0) ms,variance coefficient (27.8± 9.7) ％),the differences were significant(P＜0.01),while all of CPT parameters in the first degree relatives were similar to those in controlled group(P＞0.05).In X task (a complex performance),the results of CPT in the first degree relatives were between the patients and the normal controls,and the differences were statistically significant(P＜0.05).Conclusion The anxiety disorder patients showed no sustained attention impairment in simple performance while in a complex performance there were some defects of sustained attention functions in the patients with social anxiety disorder and their first degree relatives.