Anxiety disorders in a public mental health system: clinical characteristics and service use patterns.
BACKGROUND
Anxiety disorders are among the most common forms of psychiatric disorder, yet few investigations have examined the prevalence or service use of clients with anxiety disorders in the public mental health sector.


METHODS
We examined demographics, clinical information, and service use in clients with anxiety disorders enrolled in San Diego County Adult and Older Adult Mental Health Services in fiscal 2002-2003.


RESULTS
Almost 15% of the sample had a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder based on administrative billing data. Most anxiety disorder clients had additional psychiatric diagnoses, most commonly depression. Clients with both anxiety disorders and depression were more likely than those with anxiety or depression alone to use emergency psychiatric services and outpatient services than those with depression alone. Those with anxiety disorders alone used more outpatient services than those with depression alone.


CONCLUSIONS
Data were taken from an administrative database.


CONCLUSIONS
Data indicate that anxiety disorders are not uncommon in public mental health settings and are associated with higher utilization of outpatient mental health services.
Wetherell
Julie Loebach
JL
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-9116, United States. jwetherell@ucsd.edu
Kim
Daniel S
DS
Lindamer
Laurie A
LA
Thorp
Steven R
SR
Hawthorne
William
W
Kim
Kathleen
K
Hough
Richard L
RL
Garcia
Piedad
P
Jeste
Dilip V
DV
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003710:Demography; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011635:Public Health Administration