Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a highly prevalent, chronic, debilitating, relapsing, and often underdiagnosed anxiety disorder. Characterized by a waxing and waning episodic clinical course replete with periods of remission and relapse, GAD presents with excessive and pathological worry that is difficult to control. A diagnosis of GAD incorporates physical, psychological, and cognitive s...

The purpose of this study was to extend previous work examining publication rates for the anxiety disorders and publication topics for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Specifically, we examined anxiety disorder publication rates in MEDLINE and PsycINFO from 1998 to 2008. The results show: (1) that with the exception of panic disorder, there was a significant increase in the annual rate of pu...

From the 19th century into the 20th century, the terms used to diagnose generalized anxiety included "pantophobia" and "anxiety neurosis." Such terms designated paroxysmal manifestations (panic attacks) as well as interparoxysmal phenomenology (the apprehensive mental state). Also, generalized anxiety was considered one of numerous symptoms of neurasthenia, a vaguely defined illness. Generalize...

Since its inception as a diagnostic category in 1980, the definitional criteria for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have been revised substantially in each edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). In DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association, 1980), GAD was a residual category (i.e., diagnosis was permitted only if criteria were not met for any other Axis I...

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) affects a large number of people [1]. While inroads have been made in terms of its treatment, many reviewers of psychotherapeutic treatment for GAD conclude that effectiveness is far from complete and that more about GAD remains to be learned [2,3]. Two features of GAD are prominent. First, GAD is characterized by what can be called a behavioral excess. Suffer...

Anxiety disorders frequently affect the general population and have a lifetime prevalence ranging from 13.6% to 28.8%. This paper reviews full articles dealing with the pharmacological treatments of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder (PD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This review also attempts to evaluate the use of new drugs act...

T lifetime prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is between 6% and 10% in the general population; more women than men are aff ected.1 Studies of anxiety disorders in primary care populations have shown that up to 18% of patients suff er from any anxiety disorder, and 7% of patients have GAD. A study of 6370 primary care patients found that 33% of patients reported anxiety symptoms, b...