Challenges to providing integrated treatment of anxiety disorders

Although anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric conditions, a number of factors in the current health care scene pose challenges to providing effective, integrated treatment. The author describes nine specific challenges, including lack of recognition of the disorder by both patients and physicians. Other challenges include lack of gender-based research, comorbidity issues, differing etiological and ideological perspectives, the burgeoning of pharmacological treatments, and the tendency to adopt an "either/or," pharmacological versus psychotherapeutic approach to treatment. The author concludes that the overarching challenge is to disseminate the increasing knowledge of these disorders so that practitioners can provide the most effective, integrated treatment.