Prevalence and Clinical Features of newly diagnosed Generalized Anxiety Disorder patients in Spanish Primary Care Settings: The GADAP study

Abstract

Background. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the most impairing anxiety disorder, a high percentage of patients remain undiagnosed at the primary care level. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical features of newly diagnosed GAD patients.

Method: Multicentre, cross-sectional observational study conducted in primary care settings. GAD patients were diagnosed according to the MINI psychiatric interview, and were included in the study if their score for GAD-7 was ≥10. Anxiety and depression levels, and sleep disturbances were determined by HADS and MOS-sleep scales, respectively. Data regarding pharmacological treatment and healthcare resources in the previous 3 months were collected.

Results. 2,232 patients were recruited; average GAD-7 score was 14.1 ± 2.7 (mean symptom duration 32.3 ± 43.3 months). 96.9% of patients had a comorbid medical illness, with 83.9% patients suffering from pain. Psychiatric comorbidities were present in 66.4% of patients (social anxiety 37%, major depression 19.1%). HADS-depression scores rendered 28.4% and 55.9% of patients as probable and depressive cases, respectively. Patients’ sleep rated 6.2 ± 1.9 on average in a 1 to 10 visual analogue scale. Only 34.9% of patients were following non-pharmacological treatment and 86.5%, 69.4% and 49.7% were treated with benzodiazepines, antidepressants and antiepileptics, respectively. The mean number of visits to the primary care physician in the previous 3 months was 5 times.

Limitations. Cross-sectional design; does not allow to infer causality.