Diagnosis of anxiety disorders in primary care.

摘要

Generalized anxiety disorder leads to considerable morbidity and affects approximately 3 percent of patients in primary care practices. Social phobia (social anxiety disorder), characterized by a strong fear of social or performance situations that may lead to embarrassment or humiliation, affects 7 percent of primary care patients. Until recently, there have been few validated tools for evaluating patients for these disorders.The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale is a 14-item tool, primarily used for research in hospital and specialty settings. A limited number of studies have evaluated the tool in the primary care setting and have largely included non-American populations. In addition, the length of this evaluation tool makes it less practical for office-based primary care physicians.