The comorbidity of anxiety disorders with personality, depressive, alcohol and drug disorders

Abstract

Anxiety disorders seldom exist in isolation from personality traits and disorders, from depressive symptomatology, and from alcohol and drug use and abuse. This review examines the relationships between anxiety disorders and these often comorbid psychiatric disorders. While diagnostic systems such as DSM-III-R which describe multiple, discrete disorders highlight comorbidity and may have value for treatment outcome and other studies, they appear unlikely to generate useful aetiological explanations of the considerable overlap of psychiatric symptomatology seen in anxiety disorder patients.