Anxiety disorders

Overview

Anxiety disorders sit at the intersection of everyday distress and diagnosable illness. A systematic review of reviews places their overall prevalence between 3.8% and 25%, with women (5.2–8.7%) and people with chronic disease carrying disproportionate burden.^[16] In general practice the presentation is rarely textbook: worry, insomnia, chest discomfort and fatigue arrive together, and the anxiety label competes with thyroid disease, arrhythmia, caffeine and substance effects for explanatory space.

The course matters as much as the diagnosis. Fifteen years of NESDA cohort data show that neuroticism, low self-esteem and repetitive negative thinking predict onset, chronicity and recurrence of both depression and anxiety — transdiagnostic vulnerabilities that persist across decades. Comorbidity is the norm: GAD comorbid with depression increases hospital-admission risk (IRR 1.23) even where pure GAD alone does not.^[15][17]

References20ShowHide

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