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Natural Course and Spontaneous Remissions of Untreated Anxiety Disorders: Results of the Munich Follow-up Study (MFS)

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Book cover Panic and Phobias 2

Abstract

Anxiety disorders obviously belong to the most frequent mental disorders both in the community (Robins et al. 1984; Myers et al. 1984; Lépine 1987; Marks 1987; Surtees et al. 1987; Wittchen et al. 1988; Wittchen and Burke, to be published) and in treatment settings (Goldberg 1982; Strian 1983; Marks 1987). They have also been studied extensively with regard to the effectiveness of psychological and pharmacological treatment methods. Little, however, is known about their natural course and the frequency of so-called spontaneous remissions in untreated anxiety disorders. This paper discusses some methodological reasons for this deficit and presents some new, still preliminary results on the natural course of untreated anxiety disorders from a general population survey.

This study is part of the Munich Follow-up Study (MFS). The MFS was supported by a grant from the Robert Bosch Foundation.

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Authors
  1. H.-U. Wittchen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Verhaltenstherapie — Ambulanz, Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik, Martinistraße 52, D-2000, Hamburg 20, Germany

    Iver Hand

  2. Klinische Psychologie and Max Planck Institut für Psychiatrie, Unit for Evaluation Research, Universität Mannheim, Kraepelinstraße 10, D-8000, München 40, Germany

    Hans-Ulrich Wittchen

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© 1988 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Wittchen, HU. (1988). Natural Course and Spontaneous Remissions of Untreated Anxiety Disorders: Results of the Munich Follow-up Study (MFS). In: Hand, I., Wittchen, HU. (eds) Panic and Phobias 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73543-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73543-1_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-73545-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-73543-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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