Some people say they would rather be dead than get up in front of an audience. That, says Professor Mark Pollack from Harvard Medical School, Boston, US, pinpoints them as a likely victim of social anxiety disorder - the most prevalent of the anxiety disorders which, at one point during a lifetime, may affect as many as 25% of the population. Professor Pollack, the chairman of a Pfizer-supported symposium on anxiety disorders at the 154th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) [New Orleans, US; May 2001], said that social anxiety disorder occurs in about 12% of the population, with the next most common anxiety disorders being post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; affecting 6% of the population), generalised anxiety disorder (4%) and panic disorder (3%).