Clinical Markers of Panic and Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder: Differences in Clinical Manifestation and Prognosis, a Multicenter Study

The goal of this observational study is to compare socio-demographic and clinical features in patients affected by Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and by Panic Disorder (PD). The main questions it aims to answer are:

• which socio-demographic/clinical markers are associated to GAD or PD diagnosis?
• which factors are associated with a longer duration of untreated illness (DUI) in GAD and in PD? Participants will signed a written informed consent and socio-demographic/clinical variables will be retrospectively collected. Researchers will compare GAD and PD groups in terms of socio-demographic and clinical features, including DUI, to better characterize the two disorders and to investigate factors associated to a longer DUI.

Inclusion Criteria:

• age 18-65 years;
• ability and willing to give informed consent;
• fluency in Italian language;
• diagnosis of GAD or PD according to the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, 5th edition.

Exclusion Criteria:

• intellectual disability;
• lack of clinical and socio-demographic information;
• patients treated for less than three months in the outpatient clinics for the impossibility of a comprehensive collection of clinical variables.