Clinical Research Case Report

Abstract

Anxiety is an anticipatory and adaptive response of an individual in response to a challenging or stressful situation in the external environment. Pathological anxiety is excessive, disproportionate to the situation and is associated with distress and disability. Anxiety disorders have a complex multifactorial etiology with evidence for biological underpinnings which often interact with psychological and social risk factors during the genesis and progression. Anxiety disorders assume a social and public health significance in view of their chronic course and tendency to cause substantial socioeconomic burden. Even though effective treatment strategies exist, only a fraction of individuals receive any form of help resulting in a huge treatment gap especially in the developing countries. Anxiety disorders also need to be understood from a cross-cultural perspective. Anxiety symptoms are often expressed and experienced within socio cultural contexts. Understanding that context can help in managing the cultural diversity in clinical presentation and symptom expression. This chapter attempts to provide an evidence based review of epidemiological, social, cultural and public health dimensions of anxiety disorders specifically focusing on the developing countries.