Characteristics of worry in GAD patients, social phobics, and controls

Abstract

Phenomenological features of worry such as thought content, subjective experience of worry, and efforts to control were investigated in the present interview study, as well as retrospective information about possible origins. To examine the clinical specificity of worrying in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), 36 GAD patients were compared to a normal control group (N = 30) and to a clinical control group (N = 22 social phobics). GAD patients differed from both groups in having higher frequency of worry, higher number of different worry topics, lower subjective controllability, more accompanying bodily symptoms, and more distress during worry. Thus, in general, our data confirm the central and specific role of worrying in GAD. Furthermore, in contrast to other topics, worrying about daily hassles was specific to GAD patients, which represents a lower threshold for starting to worry.

Repetitive Thought and Emotional Distress: Rumination and Worry as Prospective Predictors of Depressive and Anxious Symptomatology

“…For example, in cross-sectional research, Borkovec and colleagues (1983) found that worry was associated with greater feelings of anxiety and muscle tension as well as difficulty refocusing thoughts. Moreover, individuals with GAD, a disorder defined by persistent worry, endorsed more physical symptoms of anxiety, such as trembling, restlessness, fatigue, tension, and shortness of breath compared to controls and individuals with Social Phobia (Hoyer, Becker, & Roth, 2001). Of most theoretical relevance, a path analysis examining the causal relationship between worry and anxiety suggested that worry predicted anxious arousal, whereas anxiety did not predict worry (Gana, Martin, & Canouet, 2001).…”

Generalized worry disorder: a review of DSM-IV generalized anxiety disorder and options for DSM-V

“…GAD patients also worried about more topics, particularly people/relationships, finances, religion/politics/environment, and ''daily hassles'' than those with social phobia. [71] Older patients with GAD (N 5 36, mean age 5 68.4 years, SD 5 8.2) also report more pervasive worry than those experiencing subthreshold-anxiety (defined as respondents who sought treatment for anxiety but who did not satisfy full DSM-IV criteria for any disorder, N 5 22) particularly about minor matters, finances, social/interpersonal matters, and their personal health. This sub-threshold group, however, did report more generalized worry than nonanxious controls (N 5 32).…”

“…Unfortunately, there are limited data on the discriminant validity of the difficult-to-control criterion but Hoyer et al [71] showed that GAD patients find their worry more difficult-to-control than patients with social phobia and nonanxious controls.…”

Wann sind Sorgen pathologisch?

“…Dies sollte allerdings nicht zu dem Fehlschluss verleiten, die Störung sei wenig beeinträchtigend [vgl. Hoyer et al, 2003]: Sorgen von Patienten mit Generalisierter Angststörung werden als deutlich weniger kontrollierbar und emotional stärker beeinträchtigend erlebt und sind von stär-keren körperlichen Symptomen begleitet als diejenigen von Gesunden oder von Patienten mit einer anderen Angststö-rung (Soziale Phobie, Hoyer et al [2001] (Stöber, 1995;abgedruckt in Becker und Margraf [2007]), nicht mehr als ein erstes Datum zur Häufigkeit der klinisch relevanten Sorgenproblematik zu erwarten; zwischen klinischen und alltäglichen Sorgen vermag das Verfahren nicht befriedigend zu trennen [Ruscio et al, 2001;Verkuil et al, 2007] Im Rahmen der Verhaltenstherapie der Generalisierten Angststörung sollten zusätzlich aber die funktionalen Merkmale der Sorgen beachtet werden (vgl. auch den Unterschied zwischen «der Sorge» und «dem Akt des Sich-Sorgens» [Becker und Gerlach et al, 2008]).…”