Current prevalence and determinants of generalized anxiety disorder from a nationally representative, population-based survey of India

Pavithra Jayasankar; Satish Suhas; Lakshmi P Nirisha; Sharad Philip; Narayana Manjunatha; Girish N Rao; Gopalkrishna Gururaj; Mathew Varghese; Vivek Benegal; NMHS National Collaborators Group

doi:10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_824_23

Current prevalence and determinants of generalized anxiety disorder from a nationally representative, population-based survey of India

Indian J Psychiatry. 2023 Dec;65(12):1244-1248. doi: 10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_824_23. Epub 2023 Dec 11.

Authors

Pavithra Jayasankar¹, Satish Suhas¹, Lakshmi P Nirisha², Sharad Philip³, Narayana Manjunatha¹, Girish N Rao⁴, Gopalkrishna Gururaj⁵, Mathew Varghese¹, Vivek Benegal⁶; NMHS National Collaborators Group

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
² Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India.
³ Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Guwahati, Assam, India.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology, Centre for Public Health, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Centre for Public Health, WHO Collaborative Centre for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Centre for Addiction Medicine, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.

PMID: 38298878
PMCID: PMC10826860
DOI: 10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_824_23

Abstract

Introduction: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is one of the common anxiety disorders leading to impairment and burden. However, GAD remains the least studied anxiety disorder. There is a need for nationally representative epidemiological data of GAD to understand the current burden and plan the mental health policies and programs to attain their unmet needs. Hence, this study focuses on epidemiology, socio-demographic correlates, disability, and treatment gap of GAD from India's National Mental Health Survey (NMHS) 2016.

Materials and methods: NMHS 2016 was a nationally representative epidemiological survey of adult respondents from 12 states of India. NMHS is a multi-stage, stratified, random cluster sampling with random selection based on probability proportional to size at each stage. The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview 6.0.0 used to diagnose psychiatric disorders. Sheehan disability scale was used to assess the disability. The current weighted prevalence of GAD was estimated. Association between GAD and socio-demographic factors was done using Firth's penalized logistic regression. The treatment gap and disability in GAD also calculated.

Results: The current weighted prevalence of GAD is 0.57%. The male gender and higher education groups have significantly lesser odds with current GAD. Urban metro and the married group have significantly higher odds with current GAD. The most common comorbid psychiatric disorders are depression (15.8%) followed by agoraphobia (9.4%). Among respondents with current GAD in the past 6 months across three domains, around 2/5^th has mild and moderate disability, 1/10^th has a severe disability, and 1/20^th has an extreme disability. The overall treatment gap of current GAD is 75.7%.

Conclusion: NMHS 2016 has provided valuable insights into the epidemiology and burden of GAD among the general population. The available findings provide a glimpse of the current scenario in GAD to aid policymakers in targeting interventions.

Keywords: Epidemiology; India; National Mental Health Survey; generalized anxiety disorder.