title: Performance anxiety in Brazilian musicians: prevalence and association with psychopathology indicators.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Musical performance anxiety (MPA) refers to persistent and distressing apprehension associated with performing to an audience. Our objective was to assess the presence of MPA and other psychopathologies in musicians and find correlations between socio-demographic and clinical variables.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed 230 musicians using self-rated instruments whose results were statistically compared. The logistic regression was used to check for predictors of MPA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  24% of musicians had MPA indicators, 19% had indicators of social anxiety, and 20% of depression. These figures were even higher in the comparison between professional and amateur musicians, where the rates were doubled. In the logistic regression, gender and professional status did not predict MPA, but did predict social anxiety (OD=3.22; p=0.006) and depression (OD=3.87; p=0.003).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that there is a high rate of psychiatric indicators among musicians, who have been dealing not only with difficulties inherent to their occupation, but also with under-recognized comorbidities with the potential to affect their personal and professional life in specific, poorly investigated ways.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It should be noted that our results must be interpreted with caution as we used screening and not diagnostic instruments, and because of the fact that our sample was restricted to the Brazilian context. Also, the role of temperamental features that could have a positive association with the condition of musician-and therefore minimize performance anxiety-could have been explored in order to provide a deeper understanding of the topic.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Elisa Medeiros
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Barbar
authors.forename: José Alexandre
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: de Souza Crippa
authors.forename: Flávia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de Lima Osório
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
keywords: Anxiety; Comorbidity; Depression; Musicians; Performance