Table 6.

Prospective analysis of patient data (1997–2008) with symptom episodes followed by an anxiety episode within 3 months: positive and negative predictive values of unexplained and somatic symptoms for anxiety disorder

			Positive	Negative
Symptoms	Pretest, %	Post-test, %	predictive value, %	predictive value, %
Somatoform
Tiredness	0.004	0.003	0.003	0.996
Fainting	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.997
Abdominal pain	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.997
Nausea	0.004	0.007	0.007	0.997
Constipation	0.004	0.003	0.003	0.996
Palpitations	0.004	0.013	0.012	0.997
Low back complaint	0.004	0.001	0.001	0.996
Chest symptoms	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.997
Muscle pain	0.004	0.002	0.002	0.996
Headache	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.997
Dizziness	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.997
Disturbances of sleep	0.004	0.008	0.008	0.997
Shortness of breath	0.004	0.006	0.006	0.997
Somatic
Lymph gland enlargement	0.004	0.002	0.002	0.996
Localised abdominal pain	0.004	0.002	0.002	0.996
Diarrhoea	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.997
Red eye	0.004	0.000	0.000	0.996
Swollen ankles	0.004	0.001	0.001	0.996
Shoulder symptoms	0.004	0.002	0.002	0.996
Hand/finger symptoms	0.004	0.001	0.001	0.996
Hip symptoms	0.004	0.002	0.002	0.996
Tingling fingers/toes/feet	0.004	0.003	0.003	0.997
Cough	0.004	0.002	0.002	0.996
Throat symptoms	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.997
Pruritus	0.004	0.002	0.002	0.996
Urinary frequency	0.004	0.003	0.003	0.997

Positive predictive value: the chance that a patient consulting the GP with a symptom has anxiety (incidence). Negative predictive value: the chance that a patient who does not present the symptom episode does not have anxiety disorder.