Anxiety disorders in a public mental health system: clinical characteristics and service use patterns

Anxiety disorders are among the most common forms of psychiatric disorder, yet few investigations have examined the prevalence or service use of clients with anxiety disorders in the public mental health sector.

We examined demographics, clinical information, and service use in clients with anxiety disorders enrolled in San Diego County Adult and Older Adult Mental Health Services in fiscal 2002-2003.

Almost 15% of the sample had a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder based on administrative billing data. Most anxiety disorder clients had additional psychiatric diagnoses, most commonly depression. Clients with both anxiety disorders and depression were more likely than those with anxiety or depression alone to use emergency psychiatric services and outpatient services than those with depression alone. Those with anxiety disorders alone used more outpatient services than those with depression alone.

Data were taken from an administrative database.

Data indicate that anxiety disorders are not uncommon in public mental health settings and are associated with higher utilization of outpatient mental health services.