ABSTRACT
Individuals with anxiety disorders experience a significantly lower quality of life and functional impairments, leading in some cases to long-term disability and unemployment. Anxiety is considered to be a healthy emotional response to a threat, and it helps human beings to deal adequately with a range of difficult situations. Anxiety disorders are a group of clinical conditions characterized by different maladaptive manifestations of anxiety. Significant associations exist between early-onset anxiety disorders and the subsequent first episode of other mental and substance use disorders. The most common diagnoses were depression, anxiety disorders and substance abuse. This research did not find consistent differences between developed and developing countries. Since the Declaration of Alma-Ata on primary health care in 1978, the importance of integrating mental health into primary care has been increasingly recognized as a public health strategy to decrease the enormous treatment gap for mental disorders worldwide.
