The relationship between alcoholism and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has been discussed in two research areas: research on the prevalence of GAD in alcoholics, and the prevalence of alcoholism in individuals diagnosed with GAD. Studies indicate that between 6 to 26% of alcoholics have a current diagnosis of GAD, with a lifetime prevalence rate of up 51%. In the general population, 4% would currently receive a diagnosis of GAD, with a lifetime prevalence of 8%. This meta-analytic review of the empirical literature examines the relationship between GAD and alcoholism. The author used percentages to compare the results of various studies. The averaged results of these various studies suggested there is a 25% comorbidity rate of GAD and alcoholism. critical review of the studies examined in this review revealed substantial methodological errors. Based on a critical review of the research methodology in the studies cited, the author proposed further research.

A large body of research indicates that worry, anxiety, and depression are present in the modern American psyche at increasingly high levels. Everyday worry can lead to further mental health issues, interpersonal problems, and reduced physical wellbeing and should be reduced when possible. Previous research has examined the benefits of church attendance with varied results; however, understanding the relationship between church attendance and everyday worry could be useful in reducing the effects of worry on this population. The purpose of this quantitative study was to measure self-reported levels and causes of everyday worry among church-goers from three congregations and to examine the relationship among peers when sorted by frequency of church attendance and demographic group. Participants completed demographic questions and the Penn State Worry Questionnaire online. The survey was distributed among 3 congregations in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. The 3 congregations represented a spectrum of churches from the Baptist tradition in an attempt to determine if there were significant differences among conservative, moderate, and liberal churches. Two hundred sixty-six usable surveys were returned, an 84% response rate. Results from the statistical analysis indicated that more frequent church attendance was associated with less worry. Women tended to worry more than men, and younger people tended to worry more than older people. There was no significant relationship between level of worry and church type (conservative, moderate, or liberal).

No description available.

Bakgrund: Generaliserat ångestsyndrom (GAD) är en vanlig diagnos med negativa konsekvenser såväl på individ- som samhällsnivå. För att som fysioterapeuter kunna fånga upp den här typen av patienter och då ha god kunskap om olika träningsformer som tillförlitlig behandling ansågs det fördelaktigt att undersöka det vetenskapliga underlaget för styrketräning som behandlingsmetod. Syfte: Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att undersöka det vetenskapliga underlaget för effekten av styrketräning, i jämförelse med annan eller ingen intervention, som behandlingsmetod för att minska oros- och ångestsymtom hos vuxna mellan 18-64 år med GAD. Metod: En litteraturstudie av randomiserade kontrollerade studier där populationen var vuxna mellan 18-64 år med GAD. Sökningar genomfördes i databaserna PubMed, Cochrane, PEDro och Psycinfo. Fyra studier inkluderades och granskades sedan med PEDro. Den sammanvägda tillförlitligheten av resultatet av tre studier bedömdes med hjälp av GRADEstud. Resultat: Det vetenskapliga underlaget för styrketräning som behandling för personer med GAD är för begränsat för att kunna dra några starka slutsatser. Alla inkluderade studier visade dock på reducering av oros- och ångestsymtom, som båda är kännetecknande symtom för GAD. Konklusion: Det sammanvägda resultatet indikerar på att styrketräning skulle kunna vara en alternativ behandlingsmetod för denna patientgrupp. Mer forskning behövs dock för att kunna utvärdera effekten av styrketräning som behandling för personer med GAD. / Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common diagnosis with negative consequences both on an individual and societal level. In order for physiotherapists to be able to catch these patients and then have good knowledge of different forms of exercise as reliable treatment, it was considered beneficial to investigate the scientific basis for resistance exercise training as a treatment method. Objective: The aim of this literature review was to investigate the scientific basis for the effect of resistance exercise training, in comparison with other or no intervention, as a treatment method to reduce worry and anxiety symptoms in adults aged 18-64 with GAD. Method: A literature review of randomized controlled trials where the population was adults between 18-64 years old with GAD. Searches were conducted in the databases PubMed, Cochrane, PEDro and Psycinfo. Four studies were included and reviewed with PEDro. The combined reliability of the results of three studies was assessed using GRADEstud. Results: The scientific basis for resistance exercise training as a treatment for people with GAD is too limited to be able to draw any strong conclusions. However, all included studies showed a reduction in worry and anxiety symptoms, both of which are characteristic symptoms of GAD. Conclusion: The combined results indicate that strength training could be an alternative treatment method for this patient group. However, more research is needed to be able to evaluate the effect of strength training as a treatment for people with GAD.

This study examined whether schemas formed during training (graduate coursework, clinical supervision, etc.) are responsible for the tendency of clinicians to experience higher rates of false recall for clinical case details when compared to novices. Participants in this study were recruited from a general psychology class to limit preexisting knowledge of psychological disorders. Half of the participants were trained to recognize features of Generalized Anxiety Disorder with the purpose of forming a schema for that disorder, whereas the other half were not. Participants’ memory for the diagnostic and non-diagnostic details within a hypothetical case vignette was tested using a free recall prompt followed by a yes/no recognition test. Trained participants falsely recognized the diagnostic detail ‘restlessness’ and falsely recalled the diagnostic detail ‘uncontrollable worry’ at a significantly higher rate than controls, suggesting that the training successfully formed a schema for GAD symptoms.

No description available.

No description available.

Major Depression (MD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) are psychiatric disorders that arise from dysfunction of the core human capacities for emotion. Sapience is inextricably bound up with the potential for feelings of regret, worry and concern. When these emotions lead to clinically significant impairment or distress, they may result in one or both of the disorders of MD and GAD. The occurrence of MD and GAD in the same person, known as comorbidity, is remarkably high; substantially higher than would be expected by chance. MD and GAD have been studied since the mid-20th century, resulting in a substantial body of literature. The personality trait of neuroticism is also known to correlate highly with these disorders. This project was designed to compare the etiological structure of MD and GAD using a range of psychosocial and genetic methods in three datasets, while also assessing the correlated trait of neuroticism. Results are used to inform theoretical formulation of an approximate model of comorbidity for the two disorders. Psychosocial findings suggest that MD and GAD have similar relationships with most risk factors, and that neuroticism displays results consistent with it composing a portion of the liability to MD and GAD. Efforts to detect specific genetic loci involved in the etiology of MD and GAD are modestly successful. Two genome-wide significant variants were found for MD (one already identified in the literature); two for GAD, and one for neuroticism. There were also a number of significant genomic regions for each outcome. The use of aggregate genetic methods to estimate heritability based on genotypes was less successful. Estimation was only successful in one sample of the three, and produced modest estimates of heritability (0.2-0.25) for MD and comorbid MD+GAD. Genetic correlation was estimated to be very high between neuroticism and MD. Models of comorbidity are evaluated in light of these results, and a model comprising multiple liability distributions, one shared entirely by MD and GAD, and two additional correlated ones for the two disorders, with reciprocal phenotypic causation, is deemed most consistent with observed evidence.

Despite the success of available medical and psychosocial treatments, a sizable subgroup of individuals with commonly co-occurring disorders, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), fail to make sufficient treatment gains thereby prolonging their deficits in life functioning and satisfaction. Clinically, these patients often display temperamental features reflecting heightened sensitivity to underlying motivational systems related to threat/safety and reward/loss (e.g., somatic anxiety) as well as inordinate negative self-referential processing (e.g., worry, rumination). This profile may reflect disruption in two important neural networks associated with emotional/motivational salience (e.g., salience network) and self-referentiality (e.g., default network, DN). Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) was developed to target this hypothesized profile and its neurobehavioral markers. In the present study, 22 GAD patients (with and without MDD) completed resting state MRI scans before receiving 16 sessions of ERT. To test study these hypotheses, we examined the associations between baseline patterns of intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) of the insula and of hubs within the DN (anterior and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex [MPFC] and posterior cingulate cortex [PCC]) and treatment-related changes in worry, somatic anxiety symptoms and decentering. Results suggest that greater treatment linked reductions in worry were associated with iFC clusters in both the insular and parietal cortices. Greater treatment linked gains in decentering, a metacognitive process that involves the capacity to observe items that arise in the mind with healthy psychological distance that is targeted by ERT, was associated with iFC clusters in the anterior and posterior DN. The current study adds to the growing body of research implicating disruptions in the default and salience networks as promising targets of treatment for GAD with and without co-occurring MDD.

Background. The proposed revisions of the ICD and DSM diagnostic systems have led to increased interest in evaluation of diagnostic criteria. This report focuses on the DSM-IV requirement that episodes of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) must persist for at least 6 months. Community epidemiological data are used to study the implications of changing this requirement in the range 1–12 months for estimates of prevalence, onset, course, impairment, co-morbidity, associations with parental GAD, and sociodemographic correlates. Method. Data come from the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), a US household survey carried out during 2001–2003. Version 3.0 of the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI) was used to assess DSM-IV anxiety disorders, mood disorders, substance disorders, and impulse-control disorders. Results. Lifetime, 12-month, and 30-day prevalence estimates of DSM-IV GAD changed from 6·1%, 2·9%, and 1·8% to 4·2–12·7%, 2·2–5·5%, and 1·6–2·6% when the duration requirement was changed from 6 months to 1–12 months. Cases with episodes of 1–5 months did not differ greatly from those with episodes of [gt-or-equal, slanted]6 months in onset, persistence, impairment, co-morbidity, parental GAD, or sociodemographic correlates. Conclusions. A large number of people suffer from a GAD-like syndrome with episodes of <6 months duration. Little basis for excluding these people from a diagnosis is found in the associations examined here.