Cultural Reflections of the Expressions of the Anxiety of Patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a chronic and quite common disease characterized by uncontrolled extreme anxiety, chronic anxiety and tension (1). Generally, GAD is associated with a number of physical symptoms that cause significant deterioration in daily social and occupational functioning (2, 3). In addition to a variety of cognitive and emotional anxiety symptoms, it is characterized by autonomic nervous system (ANS) symptoms, including hot flash, palpitation, sweating, and tremors (2, 4). GAD is common in both community and health institutions. In the epidemiological studies of national representative samples in the United States, the lifetime prevalence of GAD was found between 5.1% (5-7) 11.9% (5, 8).