The 2-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale had high sensitivity and specificity for detecting GAD in primary care

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JB, et al. Anxiety disorders in primary care: prevalence, impairment, comorbidity, and detection. Ann Intern Med 2007;146:317–25. [OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4] Q In primary care patients, is a brief anxiety measure (Generalized Anxiety Disorder [GAD] scale) accurate for detecting GAD, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder? Clinical impact ratings GP/FP/Primary care ★★★★★☆☆ GP/FP/Mental health ★★★★★★☆ Psychiatry ★★★★★☆☆ ### ![Graphic][5] Design: blinded comparison of GAD scale with psychiatric diagnoses based on DSM-IV criteria. ### ![Graphic][6] Setting: 15 primary care centres (13 family practice and 2 internal medicine) in 12 states in the US. ### ![Graphic][7] Patients: 965 patients who were 18–87 years of age (mean age 47 y, 69% women), completed a self-report questionnaire, and were randomly selected from 1654 patients who agreed to a follow-up telephone interview. ### ![Graphic][8] Description of test: GAD-7, a 7-item anxiety scale. Scores ranged from 0 to 21; scores of 5, 10, and 15 indicated mild, moderate, and severe anxiety symptoms, respectively. The … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DAnnals%2Bof%2BInternal%2BMedicine%26rft.stitle%253DANN%2BINTERN%2BMED%26rft.issn%253D0003-4819%26rft.aulast%253DKroenke%26rft.auinit1%253DK.%26rft.volume%253D146%26rft.issue%253D5%26rft.spage%253D317%26rft.epage%253D325%26rft.atitle%253DAnxiety%2BDisorders%2Bin%2BPrimary%2BCare%253A%2BPrevalence%252C%2BImpairment%252C%2BComorbidity%252C%2Band%2BDetection%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.7326%252F0003-4819-146-5-200703060-00004%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F17339617%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.7326/0003-4819-146-5-200703060-00004&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=17339617&link_type=MED&atom=%2Febmed%2F12%2F5%2F149.atom [4]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000244829600001&link_type=ISI [5]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif [6]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif [7]: /embed/inline-graphic-3.gif [8]: /embed/inline-graphic-4.gif