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Is Anxiety Disorder Linked to Depression?

According to PsychiatricTimes.com, 50 to 60 percent of people who suffer from an anxiety disorder also have a depressive disorder, and vice versa. There is considerable overlap in the symptoms, underlying mechanisms and causes of anxiety and depression.

  1. Common Experiential Causes

    • Psychosocial stress, childhood trauma and abuse are predisposing factors for both depression and anxiety. Trauma appears to increase physiological reactivity to later stress, a response style that occurs in both anxiety and depression.

    Shared Genetic Factors

    • Certain forms of anxiety and depressive disorders share familial or genetic links. For example, major depressive disorder shares genetic predisposing factors with generalized anxiety disorder.

    Shared Endocrine Pathways

    • Elevated levels of cortisol and other stress hormones such as catacholamines are associated with both depressive and anxiety disorders.

    Shared Brain Mechanisms

    • Both anxiety and depressive disorders are associated with deficits in the availability of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, and both involve brain structures of the mid-brain such as the hypothalamus.

    Outcomes

    • Having both anxiety and depression is linked to inferior response to treatment, more severe impairment in emotional, social and occupational functioning, and higher risk of suicide.

    Treatment

    • Both anxiety and depressive disorders are responsive to certain medications. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors effectively treat both anxiety and depression, whether they occur separately or together.

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