Somatic symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder from the DSM-IV: Associations with pathological worry and depression symptoms in a nonclinical sample

The present study investigates specificity of the six somatic symptoms that are associated with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), according to the f ourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. A nonclinical sample of 183 students provided severity ratings for (a) res tlessness, (b) easily fatigued, (c) difficulty concentrating, (d) irritabil ity, (e) muscle tension, and (f) sleep disturbance. In addition, they respo nded to questionnaires assessing pathological worry and depression symptoms . Partial correlations and multiple regression analyses indicated that only muscle tension showed a unique relation to pathological worry. Ln contrast , difficulty concentrating was exclusively related to depression symptoms. Present findings corroborate psychophysiological findings that elevated mus cle tension is a specific characteristic of pathological worriers. Moreover , they suggest that the problem of unclear boundaries between GAD and major depression may be reduced if future revisions of the somatic symptom list for GAD emphasize muscle tension while de-emphasizing difficulty concentrat ing. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.