WATCHERS: Recognizing Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Letter to the Editor

Sir:

The recent article by Davidson et al. raises awarenessof generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), one of the most commonlydiagnosed psychiatric illnesses in the United States, withan estimated life prevalence of 5.1%. To improve recognition ofGAD, I have introduced the mnemonic WATCHERS, whichdescribes the core symptoms of this condition as given in theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, FourthEdition.