GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER - A PRELIMINARY TEST OF A CONCEPTUAL-MODEL

This study presents a preliminary test of a conceptual model of Genera lized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) which is theoretically driven and has cle ar clinical implications. The model's main features are intolerance of uncertainty, beliefs about worry, poor problem orientation and cognit ive avoidance. Subjects were 24 GAD patients and 20 non clinical contr ol subjects. The results show that all main components of the model we re highly related to the discriminant function and that intolerance of uncertainty was pivotal in distinguishing GAD patients from non clini cal subjects. Further, the discriminant function derived from these fo ur process variables was very effective for classifying GAD patients a nd non clinical subjects into their respective groups. Overall, 82% of subjects were correctly classified as 18 of 24 subjects in the GAD gr oup and 18 of 20 subjects in the non clinical group were properly iden tified. The results are discussed in terms of the proposed model of GA D and its clinical implications. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.