ABSTRACT
Anxiety is one of the most difficult psychological terms to define, yet it is one of the most widely used. In addition to specific disorders characterized by chronic and debilitating anxiety listed in the revised third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (APA, 1987), including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety is mentioned as a symptom of most other disorders. Symptoms of anxiety also accompany a large variety of physiological disturbances, such as withdrawal from substances (barbiturates, alcohol, amphetamines, caffeine, cocaine, nicotine, etc.) and organic anxiety syndrome (DSM-III-R, p. 113).
