The lifetime prevalence and impact of generalized anxiety disorders in an epidemiologic Italian National Survey carried out by clinicians by means of semi-structured interviews

• Published in: BMC psychiatry Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 48
• Main Authors: Preti, Antonio, Demontis, Roberto, Cossu, Giulia, Kalcev, Goce, Cabras, Federico, Moro, Maria Francesca, Romano, Ferdinando, Balestrieri, Matteo, Caraci, Filippo, Dell'Osso, Liliana, Di Sciascio, Guido, Drago, Filippo, Hardoy, Maria Carolina, Roncone, Rita, Faravelli, Carlo, Gonzalez, Cesar Ivan Aviles, Angermayer, Matthias, Carta, Mauro Giovanni
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 20.01.2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety; Anxiety disorders; Anxiety Disorders - epidemiology; Bipolar disorder; Community survey; Comorbidity; Depressive Disorder, Major - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder, Major - epidemiology; Diagnosis; Drug therapy; Eating disorders; Epidemiology; Evaluation; Female; Gender; Generalized anxiety disorder; Health aspects; Humans; Interviews; Italy - epidemiology; Male; Mental disorders; Mood; Morbidity; Panic attacks; Prevalence; Prevalence studies (Epidemiology); Psychiatry; Quality of Life; Sleep; Variance analysis; Worry; Italy; Community survey; Generalized anxiety disorder; Comorbidity; Epidemiology; Quality of life
• ISSN: 1471-244X; 1471-244X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12888-021-03042-3

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the most reported diagnoses in psychiatry, but there is some discrepancy between the cases identified in community studies and those identified in tertiary care. This study set out to evaluate whether the use of clinicians as interviewers may provide estimates in a community survey close to those observed in primary or specialized care. This is a community survey on a randomly selected sample of 2338 adult subjects. The Advanced Neuropsychiatric Tools and Assessment Schedule (ANTAS) was administered by clinicians, providing lifetime diagnosis based on the DSM-IV-TR. Health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) was measured with the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12). Overall, 55 (2.3%) subjects met the criteria for GAD, with greater prevalence in women (3.6%) than in men (0.9%): OR = 4.02; 95%CI: 1.96-8.26. Up to 40% of those with GAD had at least another diagnosis of mood, anxiety, or eating disorders. The mean score of SF-12 in people with GAD was 32.33 ± 6.8, with a higher attributable burden than in other conditions except for major depressive disorder. We found a relatively lower lifetime prevalence of GAD than in community surveys based on lay interviewers and a structured interview. The identified cases of GAD showed a strong impact on the quality of life regardless of co-morbidity and high risk in women, suggesting a profile similar to the one identified from studies in primary and specialized care.