The British Journal of Psychiatry 144: 78-83 (1984)
© 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Classification of anxiety
P Tyrer
Current psychiatric classifications of anxiety are examined critically. In
the European literature a specific cluster of symptoms is diagnostic of
anxiety neurosis and their subsidiary classification is based on
precipitating factors and duration of symptoms. In the American literature,
exemplified by DSM-III, greater emphasis is placed on symptomatic
classification and panic is given separate diagnostic status, both alone
and in conjunction with agoraphobia. In both classifications generalized
anxiety is at the bottom of a diagnostic hierarchy so that all other
symptoms take precedence. It is argued that neither classification properly
identifies a discrete syndrome of pathological anxiety that is recognizable
in clinical practice.