Avoidable errors in the diagnosis of anxiety
disorders
● In primary care, 45% of anxiety disorders are not recognized as such (23).
● Anxiety disorders are often misdiagnosed because the patients present with
somatic complaints: for 87% of patients with generalized anxiety disorder, the
primary symptom is not anxiety, but rather pain or sleep disturbance (24,
e110).
● Patients with GAD are often considered to have some type of mental disturbance, but two-thirds are not diagnosed as having either any anxiety disorder
or GAD, and thus do not receive appropriate treatment (1).
● In patients with depression, a coexisting anxiety disorder is often missed and
therefore not treated (24).