Agoraphobia 221
Specific phobia, situational type. Differentiating agoraphobia from situational specific
phobia can be challenging in some cases, because these conditions share several symptom
characteristics and criteria. Specific phobia, sit uational type, should be diagnosed versus ago-
raphobia if the fear, anxiety, or avoidance is limited to one of the agoraphobic situations.
Requiring fears from two or more of the agorapho bic situations is a robust means for differen-
tiating agoraphobia from specific phobias, partic ularly the situational subtype. Additional dif-
ferentiating features include the cognitive ideati on. Thus, if the situation is feared for reasons
other than panic-like symptoms or other incapaci tating or embarrassing symptoms (e.g., fears
of being directly harmed by the situation itself, such as fear of  the plane crashing for individ-
uals who fear flying), then a diagnosis of  specific phobia may be more appropriate. 
Separation anxiety disorder. Separation anxiety disorder can be best differentiated
from agoraphobia by examining cognitive ideation. In separation anxiety disorder, the
thoughts are about detachment from signific ant others and the home environment (i.e.,
parents or other attachment figures), whereas in agoraphobia the focus is on panic-like
symptoms or other incapacitating or embarr assing symptoms in the feared situations.
Social anxiety disorder (social phobia). Agoraphobia should be differentiated from so-
cial anxiety disorder based primarily on the si tuational clusters that trigger fear, anxiety,
or avoidance and the cognitive ideation. In soci al anxiety disorder, the focus is on fear of
being negatively evaluated. 
Panic disorder. When criteria for panic disorder are met, agoraphobia should not be di-