Abstract
Family practitioners (FPs) play an essential role in mental healthcare delivery, providing triage, diagnosis, patient referral, and treatment. They are usually are patient’s first—and often their only—contact with mental healthcare services, due to the lack of access to psychiatric care. As such, FPs are commonly tasked with collecting and evaluating a broad range of symptoms that can be categorized as anxiety. The symptoms of anxiety have become increasingly ubiquitous, particularly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading many front-line providers to understandably feel anxious concerning optimal methods to assess and support these patients.
This article provides clinical pearls, supported by current empirical research, for assessing, diagnosing and treating patients presenting with anxiety.