Generic effectiveness measures: sensitivity to symptom change in anxiety disorders

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry and Mental Health
• Health Outcomes Research
• Disability Measurement

Background:

• Anxiety disorders require sensitive measures to track symptom changes during treatment.
• Generic effectiveness measures are used to assess treatment impact across various conditions.
• The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS II) is a newer disability screening tool.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the sensitivity of the WHODAS II to established generic effectiveness measures.
• To evaluate the ability of these measures to detect symptom changes in patients with anxiety disorders.

Main Methods:

• A naturalistic, observational study design was employed.
• Patients with social phobia or panic disorder/agoraphobia received treatment.
• Generic effectiveness and symptom measures were administered pre- and post-treatment.
• Correlations and effect sizes were calculated to assess measure sensitivity.

Main Results:

• The WHODAS II demonstrated the highest sensitivity to symptom changes in social phobia patients.
• In panic disorder/agoraphobia, the SF-12 was most sensitive, followed closely by the K-10 and WHODAS II.
• The NCS Disability Days measure showed the least sensitivity to symptom changes in both groups.

Conclusions:

• The WHODAS II is a sensitive measure for anxiety symptom changes, especially for social anxiety.
• It is comparable to other generic measures and may inform public health policy.
• The WHODAS II is a valuable tool for assessing disability and treatment response in anxiety disorders.