Doctors should ask adult patients about signs of anxiety, an often-undiagnosed condition that can disrupt lives, U.S. government experts said.
Anxiety afflicts about a quarter of U.S. men and 40% of women at some point in their lives, a panel of experts noted in recommendations that were published Tuesday. The ailment spiked worldwide, along with depression, during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a World Health Organization analysis. Yet primary-care providers often fail to recognize anxiety, and it can go untreated for decades, the experts say.
“Undoubtedly, screening for the mental health topics that we’re releasing now is of extraordinary public health importance,” said Michael Silverstein, a health professor at Brown University and the vice chair of the panel that made the recommendation. “So I think the COVID-19 pandemic just laid bare how important this was.”
