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01-12-2013 | Brief Report

Failure and Delay in Treatment-Seeking Across Anxiety Disorders

Authors: Emily M. Johnson, Meredith E. Coles

Published in: Community Mental Health Journal | Issue 6/2013

Abstract

Anxiety disorders are a significant mental health problem. Despite the availability of effective treatments most sufferers do not seek help. The current study assesses delays in treatment-seeking, failure to seek treatment, and reasons for delaying treatment for individuals with anxiety disorders. Data were drawn from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiological Surveys including 3,805 participants and analyses focused on treatment-seeking variables. Results indicate that individuals with anxiety disorders are less likely to seek treatment from a professional and more likely to experience delays in obtaining both any treatment, and effective treatment, than individuals with other forms of mental illness (in this case unipolar depression or substance use disorders). Deficits in mental health literacy (knowledge and beliefs about mental illness) were commonly endorsed as reasons for having delayed seeking treatment. The current study highlights the importance of improving knowledge about anxiety disorders to improve treatment-seeking.

Obsessive compulsive disorder was not reliably identified in the WMH-CIDI so data are not available. Separation anxiety disorder was not included as it is a childhood diagnosis and this sample consisted of only adults.

Nicotine dependence was not included.

Hypomanic episodes were excluded from this category.

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Title: Failure and Delay in Treatment-Seeking Across Anxiety Disorders
Authors: Emily M. Johnson
Meredith E. Coles
Publication date: 01-12-2013
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Community Mental Health Journal / Issue 6/2013
Print ISSN: 0010-3853
Electronic ISSN: 1573-2789
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-012-9543-9

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Failure and Delay in Treatment-Seeking Across Anxiety Disorders

Abstract

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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