Anxiety in the Medically Ill: A Systematic Review of the Literature

The systematic review "Anxiety in the Medically Ill" analyzed 329 studies and found that anxiety is highly prevalent in patients with various medical conditions, negatively affecting their quality of life and increasing healthcare costs. The most common anxiety disorder was Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). The prevalence of anxiety ranged from 32.5-53.1% in cardiovascular patients, 11.8-100% in respiratory patients, 17-29% in stroke patients, 24.5-90% in CNS disease patients, 28% in gastrointestinal patients, 21.1-76.4% in inflammatory bowel disease patients, 36-49.2% in dermatological patients, and 6.5-78.3% in cancer patients. The review also found that 28.7% of patients with chronic illnesses had moderate anxiety, while severe anxiety was present in 61.3% of these patients. The review concludes that more attention should be given to diagnosing and treating anxiety in medically ill patients.