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Epidemiology of Anxiety Disorders

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Book cover Behavioral Neurobiology of Anxiety and Its Treatment

Part of the book series: Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences ((CTBN,volume 2))

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the descriptive epidemiology of anxiety disorders based on recently completed surveys of the general population. The overall prevalence of anxiety disorders is shown to be quite high, but with considerable variation from the most prevalent (specific phobias) to the least prevalent (agoraphobia without a history of panic disorder) disorders. Age-of-onset (AOO) of anxiety disorders is typically in childhood or adolescence and the course is often chronic-recurrent. Anxiety disorders are highly comorbid with each other and with other mental disorders. Because of their early AOO, they are often the temporally primary disorders in comorbid profiles, raising the question whether early interventions to treat anxiety disorders might have a positive effect on the onset, persistence, or severity of secondary disorders such as mood and substance use disorders. This possibility has not yet been extensively explored but warrants further study given the high societal costs of anxiety disorders.

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Acknowledgments

The National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) is supported by NIMH (U01-MH60220) with supplemental support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF; Grant 044780), and the John W. Alden Trust. Preparation of this chapter was also supported by NIHM Career Development Award K01-MH076162 to A. M. Rusico. Collaborating NCS-R investigators include Ronald C. Kessler (Principal Investigator, Harvard Medical School), Kathleen Merikangas (Co-Principal Investigator, NIMH), James Anthony (Michigan State University), William Eaton (The Johns Hopkins University), Meyer Glantz (NIDA), Doreen Koretz (Harvard University), Jane McLeod (Indiana University), Mark Olfson (New York State Psychiatric Institute, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University), Harold Pincus (University of Pittsburgh), Greg Simon (Group Health Cooperative), Michael Von Korff (Group Health Cooperative), Philip Wang (Harvard Medical School), Kenneth Wells (UCLA), Elaine Wethington (Cornell University), and Hans-Ulrich Wittchen (Institute for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universitaet Dresden). The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the views of any of the sponsoring organizations, agencies, or U.S. Government. A complete list of NCS publications and the full text of all NCS-R instruments can be found at http://www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/ncs. Send correspondence to ncs@hcp.med.harvard.edu.

The NCS-R is carried out in conjunction with the WHO WMH Survey Initiative. We thank the staff of the WMH Data Collection and Data Analysis Coordination Centers for assistance with instrumentation, fieldwork, and consultation on data analysis. These activities were supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH070884), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Pfizer Foundation, the US Public Health Service (U13-MH066849, R01-MH069864, and R01 DA016558), the Fogarty International Center (FIRCA R03-TW006481), the Pan American Health Organization, Eli Lilly and Company, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Shire. A complete list of WMH publications can be found at http://www.hcp.med.harvard.edu/wmh/.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, 180 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Ronald C. Kessler

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3720 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Ayelet Meron Ruscio

  3. Columbia University School of Social Work, 1255 Amsterdam Avenue, Room 835, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Katherine Shear

  4. Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technische Universitaet Dresden, Chemnitzerstrasse 46, Dresden, Germany

    Hans-Ulrich Wittchen

Authors
  1. Ronald C. Kessler
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  2. Ayelet Meron Ruscio
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  3. Katherine Shear
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  4. Hans-Ulrich Wittchen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ronald C. Kessler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, Gilman Drive 9500, La Jolla, 92093-0985, USA

    Murray B. Stein

  2. Research & Development, CNS - Affective Spectrum, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical, Turnhoutseweg 30, Beerse, 2340, Belgium

    Thomas Steckler

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Kessler, R.C., Ruscio, A.M., Shear, K., Wittchen, HU. (2009). Epidemiology of Anxiety Disorders. In: Stein, M., Steckler, T. (eds) Behavioral Neurobiology of Anxiety and Its Treatment. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2009_9

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