Anxiety Disorder not Otherwise Specified

This is the usual category to which clinicians must consign patients who present with prominent anxiety or phobic symptoms, but who do not fit neatly into the other categories. Examples from DSM-IV are mixed anxiety and depressive symptoms, social phobia complicated by things like unpleasant skin conditions, Parkinson's disease, or stuttering, and cases in which it cannot be determined whether the symptoms are produced by a medical condition or induced by a substance. Given these uncertainties, the prognosis is as uncertain as the diagnosis, but people with this diagnosis should certainly seek treatment, which will probably help with the diagnosis, in addition to ameliorating the symptoms.

 Go to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America home page.

                                                                                                                                Last updated  12/19/03