Anxiety disorders in children and adults: A cognitive, neurophysiological, and genetic characterization.

Abstract

Anxiety disorders are the most common category of mental disorders worldwide, placing a substantial burden on patients, their families, and society. The World Mental Health Survey Consortium reported 12-month prevalences of anxiety disorders that ranged from 2.4% in Shanghai, China, to 18.2% in the United States (Demyttenaere et al., 2004). The European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders has also investigated anxiety disorders’ prevalence, risk factors, and burden and service use by mental patients in a sample of 213 million young and elderly adults from six European countries (i.e., Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain). The data indicated that 12-month and lifetime prevalences of any anxiety disorder are 14.5% and 8.4% in the European population, respectively (Alonso & Lepine, 2007; see also Kessler, Chiu, Demler, Merikangas, & Walters, 2005). Several factors contribute to the individual and social burden of anxiety disorders (Kessler, 2007). First, anxiety disorders are highly persistent; approximately 60%–70% of survey respondents with a lifetime anxiety disorder reported that their anxiety had been active within 6–12 months before the interview. Second, anxiety disorders are highly comorbid with other anxiety disorders and mood disorders. In addition, the lifetime prevalence of comorbid anxiety and depression has apparently increased in recent cohorts. Third, anxiety disorders are associated with substantial impairments in both productivity (e.g., work absenteeism, unemployment) and social roles (e.g., social isolation, marital disruption). Last but not least, anxiety disorders have an early age of onset (i.e., medians around 15 years) and they are associated with pervasive delays in seeking professional treatment. The number of diagnostic categories for anxiety disorders has increased across the editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 13