Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry, that is, apprehensive expectation about events or activities. This excessive worry often interferes with daily functioning, as individuals with Generalized anxiety disorder typically anticipate disaster, and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as health issues, money, death, family problems, friendship problems, interpersonal relationship problems, or work difficulties.

GAD can’t seem to get rid of their concerns, even though they usually realize that their anxiety is more intense than the situation warrants. They can’t relax, startle easily, and have difficulty concentrating. Often they have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Physical symptoms that often accompany the anxiety include fatigue, headaches, muscle tension, muscle aches, difficulty swallowing, trembling, twitching, irritability, sweating, nausea, lightheadedness, having to go to the bathroom frequently, feeling out of breath, and hot flashes.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is more effective in the long term than medications (such as SSRIs), and while both treatments reduce anxiety, CBT is more effective in reducing depression ; however, while the overall outcomes differed, this difference was not found to be statistically significant.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder results in increased rate of morbidity and mortality rate globally. It has widely spread among the people of different population. As suggested from one study in Japan, Generalized Anxiety Disorder affects 3-5% of the total population. People among the age between 20-44 years are mainly diseased.