Veterans who suffer from anxiety may not get appropriate treatment for want of a specific diagnosis, finds a new study in General Hospital Psychiatry.
Lead researcher Terri L. Barrera, Ph.D., and her colleagues at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, TX looked at data from Veterans Health Administration outpatient records for patients with anxiety. 38 percent of the sample was diagnosed with anxiety non-specified (NOS).
They expected to find that a diagnosis of anxiety NOS disorder was only used temporarily until a more specific diagnosis was decided on. That was not the case.
“Unfortunately, our results suggested that only 12 percent of the patients with an initial anxiety NOS diagnosis received a specific anxiety diagnosis within the year,” said Barrera.
http://www.cfah.org/hbns/2013/better-diagnoses-may-help-vets-with-anxiety-get-treatment
The abstract -- http://www.ghpjournal.com/article/S0163-8343%2813%2900305-8/abstract
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