Sammanfattning
Background: The effect of state factors on neuropsychological performance in social anxiety
disorder (SAD) has not been thoroughly investigated and the overall neuropsychological profi le
remains poorly understood. Aims: The primary objective of the study was to investigate the
effect of state anxiety and state emotion suppression on neuropsychological performance in
SAD. Methods: A neuropsychological test battery was administered before and after an anxiety
manipulation (instruction to give a video-recorded speech) to 42 patients with SAD and to a
gender and education matched group of 42 healthy controls (HCs). Results: Overall, participants
with SAD performed worse than HCs on processing speed, visuospatial construction,
visuospatial memory, verbal learning and word fl uency, of which only the decreased
visuospatial construction performance was considered clinically signifi cant. State anxiety was
not associated with neuropsychological performance at baseline, whereas state emotion
suppression predicted decreased visuospatial memory in HCs and decreased verbal learning in
the SAD group. Both groups performed better on working memory, processing speed and
spatial anticipation, and worse on verbal learning and memory following the anxiety
manipulation. The increase in state anxiety was associated with the decrease in verbal learning
in both groups. Conclusions: Participants with SAD showed clinically signifi cant diffi culties
with visuospatial construction and may experience verbal learning diffi culties when suppressing
emotions and experiencing an increase in anxiety.