Worry Themes in Primary GAD, Secondary GAD, and Other Anxiety Disorders
Section snippets
Subjects
The total sample consisted of 87 anxiety disorder patients. The subjects were divided into three groups. Group 1 (n = 24) consisted of 15 women and 8 men suffering from primary GAD (age: M = 37.7, SD = 11.9). Gender and age data were unavailable for 1 subject in Group 1. Group 2 (n = 25) was made up of 14 women and 11 men suffering from secondary GAD (age: M = 38.6, SD = 12.1). In Group 2, primary diagnoses were the following: panic disorder with or without agoraphobia (n = 11),
Analysis of Data From the Structured Measure (WDQ)
Five of the six WDQ subscales were retained for the analyses: Relationships, Aimless Future, Work Incompetence, Financial, and Physical Threat. The Lack of Confidence subscale was eliminated for conceptual and empirical reasons. Conceptually, the five items that describe worry about lack of confidence appear to overlap considerably with worry about relationships. For instance, items such as “I worry that I cannot be assertive or express my opinions,” “I worry that others will not approve of
Discussion
The first hypothesis, stating that specific worry themes would be more predominant among GAD patients than among non-GAD anxious patients, was supported as both the structured (WDQ) and free-recall (GAD-Q) measures revealed that GAD patients worry more about the future than non-GAD anxious patients. How can this finding be accounted for? In working with GAD patients, we have observed that they worry about two types of situations: (a) immediate problems (e.g., a difficult relationship), and (b)
Acknowledgements
The research described in this article was financially supported by grants from the Medical Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec.
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