Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent of the psychiatric disorders.
They are two to three times more frequent in women than in men, negatively influence the quality of a person's life, lead to costly medical workups and cause general deterioration in overall health and well-being. The impact of these disorders is enormous. Fortunately, anxiety disorders are highly treatable conditions for the majority of sufferers. Anxiety is the unpleasant emotional affect, usually accompanied by physiological sensation, that is characterized by worry, doubt and painful awareness that one is powerless to control situations. In contrast to fear, anxiety is irrational.