Feeling anxious by reading only the headline? Come on.. stop being so girrrrly! Well, the latest findings support men’s conclusion that we womenfolk struggle more with anxiety attacks!!
Hah!! According to the conclusion of a new British study, women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety as men.
But I have some good news for us, the Indian women. It seems we are better off than our North American and Western European counterparts as they are more prone to anxiety disorders than women like us from the other parts of the world. North America, with nearly eight of 100 people suffering from anxiety, has the maximum number, whereas in East Asia, it’s fewer than three in 100 which happens to be the lowest, the review authors noted.
“Anxiety is important and shouldn’t be overlooked,” said lead researcher Olivia Remes, who’s with the department of public health and primary care at the University of Cambridge’s Strangeways Research Laboratory. “Sometimes people think that anxiety is just a part of their personality or that there’s nothing they can do about it, but there is.”
Excessive worry, fear and avoidance of potentially stressful situations, such as social gatherings, are disorders that characterise anxiety.
“There are treatments, including psychological treatments and medication, and other things people can do to help their mental health, such as physical activity, meditation and yoga,” Remes said.
Remes and her colleagues looked at more than 1,200 previously published studies about anxiety, and focused on 48 of them.
According to investigators findings, from 1990 to 2010, the overall number of people with an anxiety disorder remained about the same which is approximately four out of every 100.
Women were nearly twice as likely as men to have an anxiety disorder (nine per cent). And as many as 10 per cent of men and women under 35 had an anxiety disorder, the researchers found.
Remes suggested that it could be differences in brain chemistry between the two genders that caused women to suffer more anxiety but the real reason is not known.
She further added that women are also more likely to suffer from other mental health problems, such as depression; men may also be less likely to report mental health problems.
When talking about the age patterns, she said that though it’s not known why young people are more likely to develop anxiety, and that there is a possibility that older people are better able to hide their anxiety.
In addition, those suffering from other health problems are more likely to have anxiety disorders, with as many as 70 per cent reporting anxiety among their physical ills, the review found.
The review findings further revealed that among people with heart disease, for example, about 11 per cent living in Western countries have an anxiety disorder, that too especially women. People with multiple sclerosis are the most affected, with as many as 32 per cent reporting an anxiety disorder.
The researchers also found that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which is an anxiety disorder, may sometimes only affect women during pregnancy and after giving birth. Only one in 100 in the general population is affected by OCD. But, among pregnant women, the number is doubled and slightly higher than that among women right after giving birth, showed the review.
“Anxiety can be expressed differently in other cultures,” Remes said. “For example, social anxiety in the West — people are worried that people are always looking at them, being critical — they are extremely self-conscious, whereas people in Asian cultures are afraid of causing others offense.”
Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein is the president and CEO of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation in New York City. He said more research is needed on anxiety disorders and treatments that are culturally sensitive.
“Anxiety disorder hasn’t gotten the attention it should,” he said.
“There are effective treatments, including talk therapy, medication and lifestyle changes,” Borenstein said. “There are a number of steps people can take to help their condition.”
The study findings were published in the June issue of the journal Brain and Behavior.
The article first published on www.lafdatv.com
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