What percentage of the population has paruresis?
Until IPA has funding to do a verifiable study, our best data come from a document called the National Comorbidity Survey[x], a survey of 8,098 people on the prevalence and types of various psychiatric disorders. In this survey, 6.6 percent of respondents noted that they experienced a fear of using a toilet away from home. IPA regards this number as an approximate figure on the prevalence of paruresis, because it does not take into account the severity or duration of symptoms. One of our objectives is to undertake a more specific study on paruresis to gain more information on how many are affected by the disease and to what extent. We have another piece of anecdotal evidence, an account from a person in the US Navy that reported when mass drug testing of the 300 shipboard personnel was conducted, ten to fifteen people were unable to provide a urine sample. The person giving the account was placed in a room with the others who failed and all were required to stay until they could provid
