Anxiety Disorders

This entry discusses anxiety disorders as co-occurring disorders. Co-occurring disorders are often referred to as being "comorbid" with one another. In mental health treatment and research, comorbidity is quite common; recent epidemiological data suggest that over 40% of individuals with a mental health disorder have one or more additional psychiatric disorders. This is particularly relevant to treatment as patients will often present seeking remedy for one specific problem, while neglecting to mention the difficulties related to the other. Consideration of comorbidity can be the difference between successful and unsuccessful treatment, as one disorder may be caused, in large part, by another disorder. Indeed, comorbidity is frequently linked to poorer prognosis in treatment outcome studies. Comorbidity can also have a substantial fiscal impact; research indicates that ...