National Comorbidity Survey, anxiety

With a lifetime prevalence of 28.8%, anxiety disorders collectively represent the most prevalent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR)2 class of disorders, with specific phobia (12.5%) and social anxiety disorder (12.1%) being the most common.3 Recent reports from the National Comorbidity Survey Revised (NCS-R) estimate the lifetime and 1-year prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) for those 18 years of age and older to be 5.7% and 3.1%, respectively.3,4 Rates for panic disorder (PD) are slightly lower, with an estimated 12-month prevalence of 2.7% and lifetime prevalence of 4.7%. 

Bland RC, Orn H, Newman SC (1988b) Lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Edmonton. Acta Psychiatr Scand 77(Suppl 338) 24-32 Bourdon KH, Boyd JH, Rae DS, Burns BJ, Thompson JW, Locke BZ (1988) Gender differences in phobias results of the ECA community study. J Anxiety Disord 2 227-241 Breslau N, KUbey MM, Andreski P (1994) DSM-lll-R nicotine dependence in yoimg adults prevalence, correlates and associated psychiatric disorders. Addiction 89 743-754 Bromet E, Sonnega A, Kessler RC (1998) Risk factors for DSM-lll-R posttraumatic stress disorder findings from the National Comorbidity Survey. Am J Epidemiol 147 353-361 Brown TA, Barlow DH (2002) Classification of anxiety and mood disorders. In Barlow D (ed) Anxiety and its disorders the nature and treatment of anxiety and panic, 2nd edn. Guillford Press, New York, pp 292-327... 

Kessler RC (2001) Comorbidity of depression and anxiety disorders. In Montgomery SA, den Boer JA (eds) SSRIs in depression and anxiety. Wiley, Chichester, pp 87-106 Kessler RC, Price RH (1993) Primary prevention of secondary disorders a proposal and agenda. Am J Community Psychol 21 607-633 Kessler RC, McGonagle KA, Zhao S (1994) Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in the United States. Results from the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry 51 (1) 8-19... 

Wittchen HU, Zhao S, Kessler RC, Eaton WW (1994) DSM-III-R generalized anxiety disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry 51 355-364 Wittchen HU, Nelson CB, Lachner G (1998a) Prevalence of mental disorders and psychosocial impairments in adolescents and young adults. Psychol Med 28 109-126 Wittchen HU, Reed V, Kessler RC (1998b) The relationship of agoraphobia and panic in a community sample of adolescents and yoimg adults. Arch Gen Psychiatry 55 1017-1024... 

Kessler, R.C. and Walters, E.E. (1998) Epidemiology of DSM-III-R major depression and minor depression among adolescents and young adults in the National Comorbidity Survey. Depress Anxiety 7 3-14. 

Children and adults with PTSD commonly meet criteria for other psychiatric disorders (Breslau et ah, 1991 Goenjian et ah, 1995 Brady, 1997 De Beilis, 1997). In the adult PTSD literature, comorbidity is clearly the rule rather than the exception and multiple comorbidities are the rule within the rule. Kessler et al. (1995) provide data from interviews with over 6000 individuals ages 15-54 in the National Comorbidity Survey indicating that 88% of men and 79% of women with PTSD had at least one comorbid disorder. Affective disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders are the most common comorbid conditions in individuals with PTSD (Kessler et ah, 1995 Brady, 1997 Solomon and Bleich, 1998). 

Kessler RC, DuPont RL, Berglund P, Wittchen HU (1999) Impairment in piue and comorbid generalized anxiety disorder and major depression at 12 months in two national surveys. Am J Psychiatry 156 1915-1923... 

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