The DOI matches its Crossref record; 89 of the 89 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Gender differences in anxiety disorders: Prevalence, course of illness, comorbidity and burden of illness
Open accessAbstract
Women have consistently higher prevalence rates of anxiety disorders, but less is known about how gender affects age of onset, chronicity, comorbidity, and burden of illness. Gender differences in DSM-IV anxiety disorders were examined in a large sample of adults (N=20,013) in the United States using data from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Studies (CPES). The lifetime and 12-month male:female prevalence ratios of any anxiety disorder were 1:1.7 and 1:1.79, respectively. Women had higher rates of lifetime diagnosis for each of the anxiety disorders examined, except for social anxiety disorder which showed no gender difference in prevalence. No gender differences were observed in the age of onset and chronicity of the illness. However, women with a lifetime diagnosis of an anxiety disorder were more likely than men to also be diagnosed with another anxiety disorder, bulimia nervosa, and major depressive disorder. Furthermore, anxiety disorders were associated with a greater illness burden in women than in men, particularly among European American women and to some extend also among Hispanic women. These results suggest that anxiety disorders are not only more prevalent but also more disabling in women than in men.
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“Mclean et al. 2011 reported that the diagnosis of anxiety and stress disorders has a higher prevalence in women, which can explain the discrepancies in the prescription for men vs. women [30].”
From Benzodiazepines: Uses, Dangers, and Clinical Considerations (2021) · cites this paper as [30]
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“other studies revealed that femininity accompanied by low self-esteem favored the development of anxiety.49,70”
From Factors associated with gender and sex differences in anxiety prevalence and comorbidity: A systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [49]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
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“The results align with evidence that women in the general population are more likely than men to report mental disorders,57–59”
From Mental Disorder Symptoms among Public Safety Personnel in Canada (2018) · cites this paper as [57]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
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“the female gender was noted to have higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress as compared to the male gender.”
From Relationships between psychopathology, psychological process variables, and sociodemographic variables and comparison of quarantined and non-quarantined groups of malaysian university students in the covid-19 pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as [64]
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“However, this imbalance in gender distribution favoring women is consistent with treatment seeking patterns for all anxiety disorders including GAD (e.g., McLean et al., 2011).”
From Distinct functional connectivities predict clinical response with emotion regulation therapy (2017) · cites this paper as McLean et al., 2011
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“there is a clear sex difference in the prevalence of PTSD and other fear-and anxiety-based disorders (Kessler et al, 1995;McLean et al, 2011)”
From Inflammation in Fear- and Anxiety-Based Disorders: PTSD, GAD, and Beyond (2017) · cites this paper as McLean et al, 2011
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“Women generally have higher prevalence rates for most anxiety disorders, compared with men [4,5,9].”
From Canadian clinical practice guidelines for the management of anxiety, posttraumatic stress and obsessive-compulsive disorders (2014) · cites this paper as [9]
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In the citing paper
“With respect to femininity, the results showed contradictory information. While there are studies that have not found a relationship between femininity and anxiety, 64 other studies revealed that femininity accompanied by low self-esteem favored the development of anxiety.49,70”
From Factors associated with gender and sex differences in anxiety prevalence and comorbidity: A systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [49]
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“some of the most salient risk factors for women observed from our review were rumination33,44,49,65,73 and anxiety sensitivity.51,55,57,65”
From Factors associated with gender and sex differences in anxiety prevalence and comorbidity: A systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [49]
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“(b) the fluctuations of sexual hormones that affect the anxious state of women,46,49,63,64,66,69”
From Factors associated with gender and sex differences in anxiety prevalence and comorbidity: A systematic review (2022) · cites this paper as [49]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
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“Similar trends were reported during previous pandemics [61,62,63,64].”
From Relationships between psychopathology, psychological process variables, and sociodemographic variables and comparison of quarantined and non-quarantined groups of malaysian university students in the covid-19 pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as [64]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“These intriguing findings corroborate the assumption of enhanced sensitivity to cognitive effects of IN in women and indicate a potential new role of IN insulin as a pharmacological adjuvant in cognitive-behavioural therapy of anxiety disorders, which, notably, have a higher prevalence in women.155”
From Intranasal insulin (2021) · cites this paper as [155]
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Citations
Cites
Kessler, R. C. (1994) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1994.03950010008002 · Cited by 12,370
Kessler, R. C., Chiu, W. T., Demler, O., & Walters, E. E. (2005) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.617 · Cited by 12,052
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey
Kessler, R. C. (1995) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1995.03950240066012 · Cited by 10,379
Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing.
Bem, S. L. (1981) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.88.4.354 · Cited by 4,408
Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: Robust and surprising findings.
Costa, P. T., Terracciano, A., & McCrae, R. R. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.81.2.322 · Cited by 2,986
Wang, P. S., Lane, M., Olfson, M., Pincus, H. A., Wells, K. B., & Kessler, R. C. (2005) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.629 · Cited by 2,695 · cited 2×
“This is consistent with previous work demonstrating that anxiety disorders are associated with disproportionately high rates of medical health care service use (Wang et al., 2005).”
MethodResultTrauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Community: The 1996 Detroit Area Survey of Trauma
Breslau, N., Kessler, R. C., Chilcoat, H. D., Schultz, L. R., Davis, G. C., & Andreski, P. (1998) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.55.7.626 · Cited by 2,407
Wittchen, H.-U. (1994) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/0022-3956(94)90036-1 · Cited by 2,348
The economic burden of anxiety disorders in the 1990s
Greenberg, P. E., Sisitsky, T., Kessler, R. C., Finkelstein, S. N., Berndt, E. R., Davidson, J. R. T., Ballenger, J. C., & Fyer, A. J. (1999) · The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry · doi:10.4088/jcp.v60n0702 · Cited by 1,242 · cited 1×
“In fact, an analysis by Greenberg et al. (1999) showed that more than half of the cost linked to anxiety disorders is attributable to nonpsychiatric medical expenditures.”
BackgroundBrave men and timid women? A review of the gender differences in fear and anxiety
McLean, C. P., & Anderson, E. R. (2009) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.05.003 · Cited by 1,149
Self-citation
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Katzman, M. A., Bleau, P., Blier, P., Chokka, P., Kjernisted, K., Van Ameringen, M., & the Canadian Anxiety Guidelines Initiative Group on behalf of the Anxiety Disorders Association of Canada/Association Canadienne des troubles anxieux and McGill University (2014) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/1471-244x-14-s1-s1 · Cited by 1,090
“• Family history of anxiety [33] • Personal history of anxiety or mood disorder [34,35] • Childhood stressful life events or trauma [36,37] • Being female [4,9] • Chronic medical illness [34,40] • Behavioral inhibition [41,42] Katzman et al.”
BackgroundHollocks, M. J., Lerh, J. W., Magiati, I., Meiser-Stedman, R., & Brugha, T. S. (2019) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291718002283 · Cited by 988
Mathematics anxiety: what have we learned in 60 years?
Dowker, A., Sarkar, A., & Looi, C. Y. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00508 · Cited by 811
Inflammation in Fear- and Anxiety-Based Disorders: PTSD, GAD, and Beyond
Michopoulos, V., Powers, A., Gillespie, C. F., Ressler, K. J., & Jovanovic, T. (2017) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2016.146 · Cited by 786
Anxiety and coping strategies among nursing students during the covid-19 pandemic
Savitsky, B., Findling, Y., Ereli, A., & Hendel, T. (2020) · Nurse Education in Practice · doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102809 · Cited by 812
Metadata
- Authors
- McLean, C. P., Asnaani, A., Litz, B. T., & Hofmann, S. G.
- Affiliations
- VA Boston Healthcare System (US)
- Boston University (US)
- Corresponding author
- McLean, Carmen P.
- Venue
- Journal of Psychiatric Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-08
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1027-1035
- ISSN
- 0022-3956 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3135672
- OpenAlex
- W2051719689
- Cited by
- 2,519
- References
- 89
- Citations by year
- 2026: 225 · 2025: 253 · 2024: 253 · 2023: 225 · 2022: 275 · 2021: 293 · 2020: 241 · 2019: 158 · 2018: 153 · 2017: 139 · 2016: 91 · 2015: 80 · 2014: 56 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 26
- FWCI
- 53.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Psychiatric Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH078308)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- gender differences, anxiety disorders, prevalence, clinical course, comorbidities, disease burden, age of onset, chronicity, social anxiety disorder, bulimia nervosa, major depressive disorder, European American women, Hispanic women
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Anxiety Disorders, Asian, Major Depressive Disorder, Female, Health Surveys, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Sex Characteristics, United States, Comorbidity, Prevalence, Logistic Models, Cost of Illness, Age of Onset, Substance-Related Disorders, White People, Bulimia Nervosa
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