anxiety

Overview

Anxiety is a common psychiatric symptom and disorder category characterized by excessive fear, apprehension, hyperarousal, and related cognitive and somatic symptoms. Clinically, it may occur as a primary disorder or as a comorbid feature across many medical and psychiatric conditions, including depression, chronic pain syndromes, Parkinson's disease, endometriosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, fibromyalgia, cancer-related caregiving stress, and metabolic or endocrine disorders. Because anxiety can influence quality of life, treatment adherence, symptom burden, and functional outcomes, it is frequently measured as both a clinical endpoint and a covariate in biomedical research.

Biologically, anxiety is linked to dysregulation across multiple systems, including brain-gut signaling, stress-response pathways, neuroendocrine function, and neural circuits involved in emotion processing and autonomic regulation. Recent studies in the provided corpus also connect anxiety with molecular and systems-level mechanisms such as MAPK/ERK/JNK signaling, mitophagy via the SIRT3/PINK1/Parkin pathway, oxytocin deficiency, and broader neuropsychiatric toxicity profiles of anticancer therapies. In this context, anxiety is not only a clinical diagnosis but also a measurable phenotype used to evaluate disease burden, treatment effects, and mechanistic hypotheses.

Recent Publications Summary

Recent studies have documented substantial prevalence and burden of anxiety across diverse clinical populations and conditions. Among asthmatic patients in Jordan, 53.6% experienced moderate anxiety (mean score 17.40 ± 5.20) 42601735Aug, while anxiety has been identified as a significant psychological comorbidity in people living with HIV 42559869Aug, cancer survivors 42527676Jul, patients with fibromyalgia 42045133Apr, and those with polycystic ovary syndrome 42065211May. Anxiety trajectories in aging populations show complex patterns shaped by intergenerational support dynamics 41475576Dec.

Digital and app-based interventions for anxiety have emerged as scalable treatment alternatives. Engagement patterns with AI conversational agents show variable associations with anxiety symptom severity 42574544Aug, while structured trials are underway comparing cognitive behavioral therapy-based apps (Tankevirus) and metacognitive therapy-based apps (Grubl) against placebo controls in Norwegian populations with mild to moderate anxiety symptoms 42575499Aug. Complementary approaches, including risk prediction tools designed for youth populations, aim to enable early identification and personalized preventive interventions 42091201May.

Non-pharmacological interventions have shown promise for anxiety management across settings. Yoga therapy demonstrated effectiveness as an adjunct treatment for reducing anxiety alongside depression and stress in people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy 42044105Apr, while preoperative chewing gum reduced anxiety-related symptoms such as postoperative hoarseness in surgical patients 42460602Jul. Anxiety functions as an important mediator in symptom cluster relationships; in nasopharyngeal carcinoma survivors, anxiety mediated the pathway between therapy side-effects and perceived cognitive impairment 42527676Jul, while in aging populations, anxiety served as a bridging symptom across intergenerational support transition patterns 41475576Dec.

What Changes, What Holds

1. Intergenerational support patterns shape anxiety trajectories in aging
NEW DIRECTION Intergenerational support transitions 41475576Dec organize anxiety's temporal course in older adults, a mechanism absent from baseline focus on neurobiological pathways and comorbidity. Concurrent prevalence data across asthma, HIV, cancer, and PCOS reinforces the Overview's burden estimates without adding mechanistic insight.

2. App-based cognitive and metacognitive therapies offer scalable anxiety treatment
NEW DIRECTION Structured trials of app-delivered behavioral therapy 42575499Aug establish digital interventions as treatment alternatives—a modality entirely absent from baseline discussion of mechanisms and disease burden. Variable AI engagement patterns 42574544Aug suggest personalization will be essential; whether apps achieve comparable efficacy to in-person care requires further evidence.

3. Anxiety mediates symptom cluster relationships in cancer and aging populations
NEW DIRECTION Anxiety serves as a bridging symptom in symptom clusters 42527676Jul41475576Dec, mediating connections between therapy side-effects and cognitive impairment in cancer survivors and social transitions and functional burden in aging. This intermediary role—absent from the Overview's account of anxiety as independent influence on outcomes—positions anxiety as a hub mechanism across multiple disease contexts.

Overview update candidates: anxiety's role as a symptom cluster mediator in cancer survivorship and aging; emerging evidence for app-based intervention efficacy pending larger controlled trials.