Anxiety disorders in clinical practice - a modern view on the problem of therapy

Clinically significant anxiety occurs in 5-7% of the general population and in 25% or more of patients seen by general practitioners. The lifetime incidence of anxiety disorders can be over 30%. Anxiety in adolescence and young adulthood often later develops into depression. The line between a “normal” response to a threat and a pathological anxiety disorder is often very blurred and there may be a continuum from personal distress to mental disorder. The real clinical situation is that most people with anxiety do not have their diagnosis. Only about a quarter (27.6%) of people who meet DSM-V, criteria for anxiety disorder receive treatment. The aim of the study was to optimize the treatment of anxiety disorders using the drug Mexidol®, taking into account modern data of epidemiology and neurobiology. Material and methods. This review is based on relevant publications obtained through selective searches in PubMed from 2010 to 2020 (58 references). The search was conducted for the following words: anxiety disorders, terminology, Mexidol®. The presence of at least one of these keywords served as a criterion for inclusion in this review. Results and discussion. Recently, there have been changes in the classification of anxiety disorders terminology. In ICD-10, disorders that were previously defined as neuroses are now located systemically in the headings F40 - F42: panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia; specific isolated phobias; general anxiety disorder, obsessive thoughts, compulsive actions and others. Estimates are widely spread across countries, with the highest prevalence in low-income countries (5.0%), lower in middle-income countries (2.8%), and lowest in high-income countries (1.6%). Mixed anxiety-depressive disorders are also one of the manifestations of chronic cerebral ischemia (CCI). In order to optimize treatment and to consider development of psychosomatic pathology in patients with anxiety disorders, Mexidol® is widely used. It has a vegetotropic, anti-stress, anxiolytic and other effects. Mexidol® creates a mechanism for biological desensitization of recurring neurotic, anxious experiences, stabilizes the parameters of the neuropsychiatric status. Conclusions. Our clinical and research experience shows that the management of patients with anxiety disorders can be optimized with the use of Mexidol®. Against the background of sequential drug therapy in most studies, a regression of affective disorders was noted (a decrease in the severity of anxiety, depressive manifestations, and asthenic syndrome). Keywords: anxiety disorders, terminology features, Mexidol®.