1. Age and sex‐related variability in the presentation of generalized anxiety and depression symptoms
- Author
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Andrew M. McIntosh, Rosa Cheesman, Ian Jones, Brett N. Adey, Molly R. Davies, Henry C. Rogers, Gursharan Kalsi, Daniel J. Smith, Alicia J. Peel, James T.R. Walters, Gerome Breen, Megan Skelton, Katherine N. Thompson, Christopher Hübel, Matthew Hotopf, Cherie Armour, Dina Monssen, and Thalia C. Eley
- Subjects
Male ,Generalized anxiety disorder ,media_common.quotation_subject ,factor analysis ,Anxiety ,Patient Health Questionnaire ,Irritability ,Structural equation modeling ,medicine ,Humans ,GAD-7 ,Aged ,media_common ,Depression ,business.industry ,PHQ-9 ,medicine.disease ,Anxiety Disorders ,Comorbidity ,factor scores ,Clinical Psychology ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Mood ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,Worry ,heterogeneity ,Factor Analysis, Statistical ,business ,genetic links to anxiety and depression study ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Background\udGeneralized anxiety and depression are extremely prevalent and debilitating. There is evidence for age and sex variability in symptoms of depression, but despite comorbidity it is unclear whether this extends to anxiety symptomatology. Studies using questionnaire sum scores typically fail to address this phenotypic complexity.\ud\udMethod\udWe conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) items to identify latent factors of anxiety and depression in participants from the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression Study (N = 35,637; 16–93 years). We assessed age- and sex-related variability in latent factors and individual symptoms using multiple logistic regression.\ud\udResults\udFour factors of mood, worry, motor, and somatic symptoms were identified (comparative fit index [CFI] = 0.99, Tucker–Lewis Index [TLI] = 0.99, root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.07, standardized root mean square residuals [SRMR] = 0.04). Symptoms of irritability (odds ratio [OR] = 0.81) were most strongly associated with younger age, and sleep change (OR = 1.14) with older age. Males were more likely to report mood and motor symptoms (p
- Published
- 2021