General Anxiety Disorder
"SLEEPLESSNESS, IRRITATION MAY BE SYMPTOMS"
General anxiety disorder may be affecting 3% of population
"About 3 percent of Japanese are probably suffering from generalized anxiety disorder, which leads to depression and seriously affects not only those who have it, but also those around them.
Osamu Tajima, a Kyorin University professor, said GAD patients sleep poorly, suffer headaches and become highly sensitive and impatient.
"Naturally, they become irritable, tormenting themselves and troubling those around them," Tajima said.
GAD used to be called anxiety neurosis and was thought to be a condition that mainly affected highly sensitive and nervous people. Its causes are not fully known, but neither character nor stress is the cause.
"It is supposed that symptoms of anxiety, tension and sleeplessness occur after the brain's work to adjust anxiety and emotion becomes unbalanced," Tajima said.
As the number of those suffering from GAD in Japan is not well known, Tajima and other researchers recently carried out an Internet survey covering 24,000 people.
It asked whether they have felt a lack of rest and have worried about something trivial for more than half a year.
They were also asked whether they are suffering from headaches of unknown cause or other pains, whether they cannot fall asleep or sleep well, and about several other symptoms.
As a result, 3.2 percent of the respondents were diagnosed as suffering from GAD. The ratio of men and women was the same. The largest group was those aged 15 to 19, at 4.2 percent. Only 6.8 percent of all the respondents have received hospital treatment, and 83.8 percent have never been treated..."
Japan Times, June 16, 2005
General anxiety disorder may be affecting 3% of population
"About 3 percent of Japanese are probably suffering from generalized anxiety disorder, which leads to depression and seriously affects not only those who have it, but also those around them.
Osamu Tajima, a Kyorin University professor, said GAD patients sleep poorly, suffer headaches and become highly sensitive and impatient.
"Naturally, they become irritable, tormenting themselves and troubling those around them," Tajima said.
GAD used to be called anxiety neurosis and was thought to be a condition that mainly affected highly sensitive and nervous people. Its causes are not fully known, but neither character nor stress is the cause.
"It is supposed that symptoms of anxiety, tension and sleeplessness occur after the brain's work to adjust anxiety and emotion becomes unbalanced," Tajima said.
As the number of those suffering from GAD in Japan is not well known, Tajima and other researchers recently carried out an Internet survey covering 24,000 people.
It asked whether they have felt a lack of rest and have worried about something trivial for more than half a year.
They were also asked whether they are suffering from headaches of unknown cause or other pains, whether they cannot fall asleep or sleep well, and about several other symptoms.
As a result, 3.2 percent of the respondents were diagnosed as suffering from GAD. The ratio of men and women was the same. The largest group was those aged 15 to 19, at 4.2 percent. Only 6.8 percent of all the respondents have received hospital treatment, and 83.8 percent have never been treated..."
Japan Times, June 16, 2005
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