Table 2.

A hypothetical case vignette example

Sex	Female	Age at first visit	33
Chief complaints at first visit
“I always feel tense when I am talking with others whom I see for the first time or when I am doing my job.”
”I am afraid that I am displeasing others strongly.”
“I am afraid that my gaze, attitude, and contents of my talk make others feel unpleasant.”
Present illness (including any comorbidities, if any. This section may also include course of treatment)
The patient presented to the Anxiety Disorders Clinic after seeing a newspaper ad for a research study of social anxiety. She immigrated to this country three years ago from Europe where she grew up.
When she was an elementary school student, she was an active girl, did well at school and she was confident with herself. But just before she graduated from elementary school (age 12), she had a traffic accident (she ran into a car by bicycle) and a scar was made on her forehead. In the 1st year of junior high school, a classmate was upset by looking at her and said, “Wow, you look terrible” in front of other classmates, though she did not care so much about the scar on her face. Since then she was afraid that she displeased others. She grew her front hair longer to hide her scar. When she was in junior high school, she underwent operations of plastic surgery for three times and the scar became less conspicuous and is no longer noticeable.
She was admitted to the high school of her first choice. It was still very difficult for her to talk especially with boys. She did well academically and entered the university of her first choice. She could make many boy and girl friends and enjoyed her life as a student. Ever since her high school days, though, she has experienced palpitation, light flushes, stiffness of her shoulder and body when she is among other people.
After graduation from the university she joined an international trading company, and she was transferred outside of Europe and lived there for two years. At that moment she was confident with herself and enjoyed her life. Then she was again transferred to the head office in a big city in her own country. She could not get along with her superior there. Her boss made her rewrite papers repeatedly. And so, she lost confidence and again she came to feel tense when she talked with others whom she saw for the first time or when she discussed her task with others. After she began to work in the branch office in the same foreign country again following her request, she experienced a major depressive episode at the age of 31. Though her depressive symptoms remitted in 1 or 2 months without any medical treatment, she continued to feel tense with others.
She is afraid that she makes others feel gloomy and coerced because she thinks that her strain “spreads over” to other members with whom she is working, and she cannot concentrate on her task. She is in the second position in her team of 6 members. She notices that the other 5 members feel distant from her. She thinks that her colleagues consider that it is difficult to know what she is thinking of. She is often distressed to feel distant from the other members. She is afraid that her gaze, attitude, and contents of her talk make others feel unpleasant.
She sometimes goes out from her office to work with other companies. She is comfortable with this, because she has only to care just about her task and she feels relaxed to go out from her office.
Life history and developmental history (if the patient dates his present illness as far back as he can remember, the life history can be merged with the present illness)
Academic history: Graduated from a university.
Job history: Worked in a trading company after she graduated from the university.
Marital history: Married at the age of 28.
Present and past physical illnesses
At the age of 2, the patient was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease.
At the age of 12, she had a traffic accident (she ran into a car by bicycle) and a scar was made on her face.
Family history (including family composition and familial hereditary loading)
Her father died when she was 21. She has a mother, who is healthy. She has an elder brother and a younger sister. Now she lives with her husband and their two sons.