Table 1.

Sociodemographic characteristics, psychoactive prescriptions and comorbidities of patients newly diagnosed with anxiety disorder in January–June 2019 and 2020.

Variable	Patients newly diagnosed with anxiety disorder in March–June 2019 (N = 9506)	Patients newly diagnosed with anxiety disorder in March–June 2020 (N = 11,502)	P-value
Sociodemographic characteristics
Age in years, mean (standard deviation)	49.9 (19.4)	50.8 (18.6)	<0.001
Age 18–30 years	20.3	16.8	<0.001
Age 31–40 years	15.2	16.0
Age 41–50 years	15.6	16.1
Age 51–60 years	19.2	21.3
Age 61–70 years	13.2	13.7
Age >70 years	16.6	16.1
Women	36.1	36.9	0.198
Men	63.9	63.1
Psychoactive prescriptions
Antidepressants	17.9	16.0	<0.001
Benzodiazepines	11.8	9.4	<0.001
Herbal sedatives	5.9	5.0	0.010
Any	35.6	30.4	<0.001
Comorbidities diagnosed prior to anxiety disorder
Hypertension	34.7	36.0	0.061
Chronic heart diseasesa	19.2	19.2	0.999
Diabetes	12.7	12.0	0.156
Asthma	9.7	11.3	<0.001
Cancer	8.3	8.2	0.710
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	7.9	9.4	<0.001
Autoimmune inflammatory diseasesb	5.8	6.2	0.177
Renal failure	5.0	5.1	0.818
Stroke including transient ischemic attack	3.4	3.7	0.268

Data are percentages unless otherwise specified.

^aChronic heart diseases include ischemic heart diseases, heart failure and heart rhythm disorders.

^bAutoimmune inflammatory diseases include multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.