[특집] 범불안장애 진단의 문제점과 감별진단

Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Although generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common disorder with significant impairments in clinical field little is known about exact diagnosis and differential diagnosis. The reasons of little information about diagnosis and differential diagnosis of GAD are 1) changing and vagueness of diagnostic criteria of GAD, 2) multiple medical and psychiatric co-morbidity, 3) atypical presentation of clinical symptoms. 4) patterns of treatment seeking, 5) late introduction of effective treatment modalities. However, GAD is a commonly occurring, independent mental disorder in psychiatry. Recently, the epidemiological and clinical studies on GAD is increasing. For the exact evaluation and to resolve remaining uncertainties on diagnosing the patients with generalized anxiety symptoms, the author reviewed the different diagnostic criteria, the results of epidemiological surveys, clinical characteristics, comorbidity, differential diagnosis for the exact diagnosis of GAD.