Treating anxiety in the presence of medical comorbidity: calmly moving forward

Patients with chronic medical conditions (CMCs) and a comorbid anxiety or mood disorder tend to report more symptoms and experience poorer treatment outcomes compared with those without mental health comorbidity. Although the benefits to be derived from treating depression in patients with CMCs have begun to be quantified, particularly among those with cardiovascular disease, our understanding of the benefits of treating anxiety in patients with CMCs is far less developed. Improving care for patients with CMCs is one of the major challenges facing medicine today because patients with multiple chronic diseases account for most health care costs. Emerging evidence indicates that integrated or "blended" collaborative care strategies that treat both the psychiatric and physical conditions together tend to produce greater improvements in mood symptoms and control of CMCs compared with programs that target the psychiatric condition alone. We review a new report, published in this issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, from the National Institutes of Mental Health-funded multisite Coordinated Anxiety Learning and Management trial, that shines new attention on anxiety disorders and medical comorbidity. We place their findings in context with these new blended care models that are potentially more powerful, scalable, cost-effective, and readily delivered through existing CMC programs.