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This study investigated the effect of anxiety on play processes in 43 first-, second-, and third-grade children. Using a mood-induction procedure, this study compared processes in play among children randomized to an anxious or neutral mood-induction procedure. Children were assessed using the Affect in Play Scale pre- and post-moodinduction. In addition, this study examined relationships between pretend play processes and self-reported state and trait anxiety levels using the State Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. Findings demonstrated a significant negative relationship between baseline state anxiety level and organization of the play narrative. Consistent with previous research, children in both conditions significantly improved on multiple play scores over time. Although pretend play processes were not significantly affected by condition assignment, further analysis with a more sensitive measure of affect in play revealed a significant interaction between state anxiety and condition assignment on the amount of positive affect expressed in play. Results indicate that play processes can improve with time and greater state anxiety may impact organization and affective processes in play. Implications for play therapy are discussed in terms of the potential impact anxiety has on play processes.

Studies using fear-conditioning paradigms have found that anxiety patients are more conditionable than individuals without these disorders, but these effects have been demonstrated inconsistently. It is unclear whether these findings have etiological significance or whether enhanced conditionability is linked only to certain anxiety characteristics. To further examine these issues, the authors assessed the predictive significance of relevant subsyndromal characteristics in 72 healthy adults, including measures of worry, avoidance, anxious mood, depressed mood, and fears of anxiety symptoms (anxiety sensitivity), as well as the dimensions of Neuroticism and Extraversion. Of these variables, the authors found that the combination of higher levels of subsyndromal worry and lower levels of behavioral avoidance predicted heightened conditionability, raising questions about the etiological significance of these variables in the acquisition or maintenance of anxiety disorders. In contrast, the authors found that anxiety sensitivity was more linked to individual differences in orienting response than differences in conditioning per se.

Little is known about cultural differences in the expression of distress in anxiety disorders. Previous cross-cultural studies of depression have found a greater somatic focus in Asian populations. We examined anxiety symptoms in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in urban mental health settings in Nepal (N = 30) and in the United States (N = 23). Participants completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The overall BAI score and somatic and psychological subscales were compared. While there was no difference in total BAI scores, the Nepali group scored higher on the somatic subscale (i.e. "dizziness" and "indigestion," t[df] = -2.63[50], p < 0.05), while the American group scored higher on the psychological subscale (i.e. "scared" and "nervous," t[df] = 3.27[50], p < 0.01). Nepali patients with GAD had higher levels of somatic symptoms and lower levels of psychological symptoms than American patients with GAD. Possible explanations include differences in cultural traditions of describing distress and the mind-body dichotomy.

Women have a higher prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) than do men, but few studies have assessed gender differences in response to pharmacotherapy. In this study we examined gender as a correlate of response to 6 weeks of open, prospective fluoxetine treatment in 23 men and 22 women with a primary diagnosis of GAD. There was no difference by gender in age or prevalence of mood and anxiety comorbidity; however, GAD onset occurred at a significantly younger age in women compared with men. Despite a lack of difference in baseline severity measures, women had a significantly poorer response to fluoxetine as measured by both the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) and Clinician Global Impression-Severity Scale (CGI-S). In multivariate analyses, there was a significant interaction between age of onset and gender: men with younger age of onset and women with older age of onset exhibited poorer response on the HAM-A. These data, though limited in sample size and by the post hoc nature of our analyses, offer preliminary support that women with GAD, particularly those with a later age of onset, may have a poorer response to the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine. Larger placebo-controlled trials are needed to more definitively examine gender and treatment response in anxiety disorders.

Background There is a paucity of data to support "next-step" treatments for the many patients with anxiety disorders who remain symptomatic after initial pharmacotherapy. Method Thirty patients with a primary diagnosis of an anxiety disorder-panic disorder (PD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)-refractory to initial pharmacotherapy with an adequate (or maximally tolerated) antidepressant and/or benzodiazepine trial of at least 8 weeks' duration prior to study initiation received open-label augmentation with flexibly dosed risperidone for 8 weeks. Participants were diagnosed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Results Risperidone augmentation at a mean +/- SD dose of 1.12 +/- 0.68 mg/day (range, 0.25-3.00 mg/day) resulted in a significant reduction in anxiety symptoms across disorders as measured by the Clinical Global Impressions-Severity of Illness scale and Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAM-A) scores and for each disorder-specific primary outcome measure-the Panic Disorder Severity Scale, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, and HAM-A-in the intent-to-treat sample. Seventy percent (21/30) of participants completed the 8-week trial, with premature discontinuation due primarily to sedation and weight gain. Conclusions Although conclusions are limited by the open-label, relatively brief nature of this trial, our data suggest that augmentation with low-dose risperidone may be a useful option for patients with PD, SAD, or GAD refractory to adequate initial intervention with antidepressants and/or benzodiazepines. Longer-term, controlled safety and efficacy data are needed to understand the place of risperidone augmentation in the algorithm of treatment options for refractory anxiety disorders.