title: Two-year course of anxiety disorders: different across disorders or dimensions?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study compares diagnostic and symptom course trajectories across different anxiety disorders, and examines the role of anxiety arousal vs. avoidance behaviour symptoms in course prediction.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were from 834 subjects with a current anxiety disorder from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) who were re-interviewed after 2 years. DSM-IV-based diagnostic interviews and Life Chart Interviews (LCI) were used to assess the diagnostic and symptom course trajectory over 2 years. Anxiety arousal and avoidance behaviour symptoms were measured with LCI, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Fear Questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prognosis varied across disorders, with favourable remittance rates of 72.5% for panic disorder without agoraphobia and 69.7% for generalized anxiety disorder; gradually declining to 53.5% for social phobia and 52.7% for panic disorder with agoraphobia. Only 42.9% of those with multiple anxiety disorder remitted, and this group showed a more chronic course than pure anxiety disorders. Both baseline duration and severity were course predictors. Avoidance behaviour symptoms predicted the outcome better than anxiety arousal symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that the specific anxiety disorders such as recognized by DSM-IV are useful in predicting the outcome and that this may be determined largely by the relative severity of avoidance behaviour that patients have developed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Pro Persona Mental Health Care, Ede, The Netherlands. s.hendriks@propersona.nl
authors.forename: Sanne M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hendriks
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spijker
authors.forename: Carmilla M M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Licht
authors.forename: Aartjan T F
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Beekman
authors.forename: Brenda W J H
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Penninx
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal; D001526:Behavioral Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015897:Comorbidity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004924:Escape Reaction; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs
keywords: anxiety arousal; anxiety disorder; avoidance behaviour; course; generalized anxiety disorder; panic disorder; social phobia