Some previous studies have suggested that patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) have a hypoactive central dopaminergic system. Supporting this there have been reports from neuroimaging studies of reduced striatal D2 receptor binding in subjects with SAD. The aim of this study was to investigate D2 receptor sensitivity in patients with SAD compared with a group of matched, healthy controls using a neuroendocrine challenge with the selective D2 antagonist, sulpiride. D2 receptor function was assessed in 23 subjects with generalized SAD and 23 matched, healthy controls using a challenge with 400 mg of a selective D2 antagonist, sulpiride in a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover design. Response to sulpiride was measured by the change in prolactin level and changes in self-rated measures of social anxiety, mood and the ability to experience pleasure. There was no significant difference in prolactin response to sulpiride between the two groups. Sulpiride resulted in no effect in either the SAD or healthy control group on measures of social anxiety, mood or the ability to experience pleasure. Contrary to our hypothesis, in this study we found no evidence of reduced D2 receptor function in subjects with SAD compared with healthy controls.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 21 August 2025.
All research outputs
#6,109,584
of 22,669,724 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Psychopharmacology
#745
of 1,924 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#42,843
of 164,434 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Psychopharmacology
#4
of 19 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,669,724 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 72nd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,924 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 27.8. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 60% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 164,434 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 73% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 19 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.
