Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale
LSAS rates fear and avoidance across social and performance situations. This page is for clinics. Lirena uses the self-report version, the LSAS-SR.
Overview
What is the LSAS?
The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale lists social and performance situations, each rated for fear and avoidance. It is used to describe social-anxiety burden, not to diagnose by itself.
Development and clinical use
Liebowitz published the scale as a clinician-rated instrument. Self-report versions are widely used later. Mixing version identity with stored scores is a common error.
- Ratings
- Fear and avoidance
- Domains
- Social and performance
- Version
- LSAS-SR self-report
- Typical use
- Severity monitoring
- Clinical role
- Severity support
- Diagnosis
- Not established by score
Administration
A focused client experience
The person rates each of 24 situations twice, for the last week: fear or anxiety from 0 (none) to 3 (severe), and avoidance from 0 (never) to 3 (usually).
- One question at a time with visible progress
- Large keyboard-operable response choices
- Previous, next, and answer-review steps
- Clear confirmation that results go to the clinic
Telephoning in public (fear or anxiety)
Report showcase
Designed to make evidence easy to review
The downloadable synthetic example illustrates report layout using invented response patterns, without patient data or instrument questions.
- Named instrument, version, and provenance
- Item-level response pattern without source wording
- Methodology, references, and clinical boundary
- Responsible clinician review rather than automated conclusions
Clinician review required
Methodology
Understand the measure and its scoring conventions
The LSAS-SR total runs from 0 to 144, with fear, avoidance, performance and social interaction subscales. Rytwinski and colleagues (2009) reported LSAS-SR cutoffs of 30 and 60.
References
- LSAS descriptionLiebowitz MR. Social phobia. Mod Probl Pharmacopsychiatry. 1987;22:141-173.
- LSAS-SR cutoffsRytwinski NK et al. Screening for social anxiety disorder with the self-report version of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Depress Anxiety. 2009;26(1):34-38.
Questions
What clinics ask before they evaluate the LSAS
These answers stay inside educational catalogue scope. They do not replace official manuals or clinician judgement.
Is LSAS a diagnosis?
No. It describes rated fear and avoidance for clinician review.
Clinician-rated or self-report?
Both exist. Lirena uses the self-report LSAS-SR.
Can I complete LSAS here?
No. This landing does not collect answers.
Is SPIN the same?
No. SPIN is a different social-anxiety self-report.