Generalized Anxiety Disorder Among Physicians: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is defined as excessive worry that occurs on most days for at least six months, causes significant distress or impairment, and is associated with increased use of health services.

METHODOLOGY: A cross‑sectional study was carried out among physicians working in Saudi Arabia through an online questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of a sociodemographic part and the validated Arabic version of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder‑7 (GAD‑7) questionnaire.

RESULTS

The study included 110 physicians, 63 (57.3%) of whom were women with a mean age of 36.9 ± 10.0 years. Men represented 47 (42.7%) of the participants. The majority of the participants were non-Saudi (80, 72.7%). According to their scores on the GAD-7, 40 (36.4%) participants had no anxiety, 35 (31.8%) had mild anxiety, 25 (22.7%) had moderate anxiety, and 10 (9.1%) had severe anxiety. A score of 10 on the GAD-7 represented a reasonable cutoff point for identifying cases of anxiety. Accordingly, we found that 35 (31.8%) of the participating physicians had anxiety.

CONCLUSION

Physicians working in Saudi Arabia showed a significant rate of general anxiety disorder. Early detection, health education, and treatment are recommended.