In the New York Times (1/15, Subscription Publication) “Opinionator” blog, author Daniel Smith wrote, “According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders now affect 18 percent of the adult population of the United States, or about 40 million people. By comparison, mood disorders — depression and bipolar illness, primarily — affect 9.5 percent. That makes anxiety the most common psychiatric complaint by a wide margin, and one for which we are increasingly well-medicated.” Smith observed, “Just because our anxiety is heavily diagnosed and medicated, however, doesn’t mean that we are more anxious than our forebears. It might simply mean that we are better treated.”
Related Links:
— “It’s Still the ‘Age of Anxiety.’ Or Is It?,” Daniel Smith, New York Times, January 14, 2012.