Anxiety

Number of patients consulting

The graph below shows the estimated number of patients in Scotland (per 1,000 registered with general practices) who have consulted either a GP or practice-employed nurse for anxiety or other stress-related and somatoform disorders at least once in the year ending 31 March 2009, by gender and age group. Somatoform disorders are a group of psychiatric disorders characterised by physical symptoms suggesting a medical disorder, without these symptoms being fully explained by this medical disorder, substance use, or another mental disorder. The graph shows a large difference between genders in that the rates of patients consulting for anxiety were more than twice as high for females compared to males in almost all age groups. For females the rates peaked in the 35-44 years age group and for males in the 25-34 years age group.

Figures were standardised by deprivation to account for any differences between the PTI sample population and the Scottish practice population in levels of deprivation. These estimates and comparable figures for 2003/04 to 2007/08 are provided in tabular format in an  Excel document  (86KB), which also contains 95% confidence intervals for all estimates. Fairly wide confidence intervals reflect limited precision of the estimate, and can be expected when variation between practices is large (in particular for any estimate based on relatively small numbers, for example in the youngest age group).

Anxiety and related conditions ¹ - estimated number of patients in Scotland consulting a GP or practice nurse at least once in the financial year 2008/09 ^{2, 3} per 1,000 patients registered
by gender and age group

¹ Based on ISD's Read code groupings (RCGs) 'Anxiety and other stress-related and somatoform disorders'.
² Based on 58 PTI practices that submitted complete GP and practice nurse data for the year ending 31 March 2009. Rates are standardised by deprivation.
³ Population source: Community Health Index (CHI) record, as at 30 September 2008.

Note: Due to slightly updated rules determining what records describe a face-to-face contact and what records should be considered as administration, which were applied retrospectively, figures shown here are not strictly comparable to these provided prior to 30 March 2010.  See the Note of Revisions for further information.

Source: Practice Team Information  (PTI), ISD Scotland (30 March 2010)

Number of consultations

The chart below shows the estimated numbers of consultations in Scotland for anxiety or other stress-related and somatoform disorders for the six financial years 2003/04 to 2008/09, by staff discipline. These numbers have declined steadily over the last five years, although most markedly from 2004/05 to 2005/06. This is likely to be a result of a general improvement in coding precision due to coding requirements for the Quality & Outcomes Framework (QOF)  . Although anxiety is not one of the conditions for which the QOF requires a register to be maintained, it may well have benefitted from improved coding for other conditions that are part of the QOF. Whereas previously patients with anxiety-like symptoms may have been given a code referring to diagnosed anxiety, now clinicians may use a more general code for a psychological symptom or sign and not use an anxiety code until the diagnosis has been confirmed.

Figures shown were standardised by age, gender and deprivation to account for any differences in these characteristics between the PTI sample population and the Scottish practice population. These figures are provided in tabular format in an Excel document  (21KB), which also shows 95% confidence intervals for all estimates.

Anxiety¹ - estimated number of consultations with a GP or practice-employed nurse in Scotland in the financial years 2003/04 to 2008/09^{2, 3}
by staff discipline

* Health visitor and district nurse data are not available from the financial year 2006/07 onwards.
¹ Based on ISD's Read Code Grouping (RCG) 'Anxiety and other neurotic, stress-related, and somatoform disorders'.
² Based on 59, 53, 51, 49, 48 and 58 PTI practices that submitted complete data for the years ending 31 March 2004 to 2009, respectively. Figures are standardised by age, gender and deprivation.
³ Population source: Community Health Index (CHI) record, as at 30 September 2003 to 2008.

Note: Due to slightly updated rules determining what records describe a face-to-face contact and what records should be considered as administration, which were applied retrospectively, figures shown here are not strictly comparable to these provided prior to 30 March 2010. See the Note of Revisions for further information.

Source: Practice Team Information  (PTI), ISD Scotland (last updated 30 March 2010)