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Recognizing Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Recognizing Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) outlines the ICD-11 diagnostic features to support therapists in identifying GAD in their clients.
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Overview
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by marked symptoms of anxiety that persist, more days than not, for at least several months. People who suffer from GAD experience significant worry about multiple events – often concerning topics such as health, family, money, school, or work. The cognitive symptoms are often accompanied by physical manifestations such as muscular tension or motor-restlessness. The symptoms result in significant distress or impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
Recognizing Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) presents the ICD-11 diagnostic criteria to help clinicians identify GAD in clients.
Why Use This Resource?
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common mental health difficulty. This resource:
- Outlines diagnostic criteria and distinguishing features of GAD.
- Supports clinicians in identifying GAD.
- Helps differentiate GAD from other difficulties.
Key Benefits
Clear
Provides a clear description of generalized anxiety disorder.
Focused
Details the essential and additional clinical features for accurate recognition.
Informed
Drawn from the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11: World Health Organization, 2019).
Who is this for?
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Designed for mental health professionals working with individuals affected by GAD.
Integrating it into your practice
01
Understand
Review the key features of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).
02
Recognize
Identify symptoms of GAD in clients.
03
Engage
Discuss whether clients identify with symptoms of GAD.
Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance
Psychiatric diagnostic frameworks serve multiple purposes. Classification of mental disorders enables clinicians and researchers to speak a common language when describing patterns of experience and behavior, guide appropriate treatment interventions, and act as a coding system for insurance purposes. The success of these classification frameworks has varied across diagnoses but in the best cases has led to improved understanding and treatment of conditions, as well as helping many service users who find such classification valuable (Perkins et al, 2018).
Diagnostic frameworks are not without controversy. They have been criticized on grounds of reliability, validity, and distortions due to commercial interests (Zigler & Phillips, 1961; Frances & Widiger, 2012; Bell, 2017). Perhaps most importantly there are instances where they have had, and continue to have, extremely negative effects upon service users (Perkins et al, 2018). Diagnosis is not the only way of understanding people and their experiences. Many clinicians and their clients find that attending to personal stories and narratives is a helpful approach, and psychological formulation is one technique for bringing together information about what has happened to an individual and the sense that they have made of it (British Psychological Society, 2018).
Notwithstanding the above caveats, the ‘Recognizing...’ series from Psychology Tools is designed to aid clinicians in the recognition and understanding of common mental health problems.
What's inside
- Detailed description of generalized anxiety disorder.
- Essential and additional clinical features based on the ICD-11.
- Therapist guidance for using the resource.
FAQs
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) involves persistent anxiety symptoms lasting several months. Individuals with GAD experience significant worry about various issues, including health, family, money, school, or work.
Information for the ‘Recognizing...’ series is drawn from the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11: World Health Organization, 2019).
How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes
Utilizing this resource can help therapists:
- Recognize common mental health difficulties.
- Distinguish between different mental health disorders.
- Apply this knowledge to enhance case conceptualizations, treatment recommendations, and treatment plans.
References And Further Reading
- Bell, V. (2017). We need to get better at critiquing psychiatric diagnosis. Retrieved from https://mindhacks.com/2017/09/19/why-we-need-to-get-better-at-critiquing-diagnosis/
- British Psychological Society (2018). Understanding psychiatric diagnosis in adult mental health. Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20180214095228/https://www1.bps.org.uk/system/files/user-files/Division%20of%20Clinical%20Psychology/public/DCP%20Diagnosis.pdf
- Frances, A. J., & Widiger, T. (2012). Psychiatric diagnosis: lessons from the DSM-IV past and cautions for the DSM-5 future. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 109-130.
- Perkins, A., Ridler, J., Browes, D., Peryer, G., Notley, C., & Hackmann, C. (2018). Experiencing mental health diagnosis: a systematic review of service user, clinician, and carer perspectives across clinical settings. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(9), 747-764.
- World Health Organization. (2019). International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11). Geneva: World Health Organization.
- Zigler, E., & Phillips, L. (1961). Psychiatric diagnosis: A critique. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3), 607.
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