KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette In this image taken from a video on the Sun-Gazette’s YouTube channel, Drs. Adwoa K. Boahene, left, and Elizabeth Anderson, of UPMC Williamsport, talk about the importance of screening for anxiety.

An independent panel of medical experts, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, now recommends that everyone in the age range of 8 to 65 years old be regularly screened for anxiety.

Why? And how can someone tell the difference between a case of nerves and an anxiety disorder?

The Sun-Gazette sat down with Drs. Elizabeth Anderson, associate director, and Adwoa K. Boahene, assistant director, both of the Family Medicine Residency program at UPMC Williamsport, to find out why this screening is an important tool for physicians.

Why screen for anxiety?

Boahene: “There is a lifetime prevalence of anxiety or anxiety disorders in the general population that’s anywhere between 5.1 and 11.9%. That is a big percentage of people who will be experiencing some sort of anxiety related disorder over the course of their lifetime.”

What is the tipping point between everyday stressors and anxiety disorders?

Boahene: “It’s when the symptoms become overwhelming to the person, or to the point they’re impairing their normal function. Everybody has anxiety or worry — you are rushing to get your kids off here, this wedding next week, or what have you. You know, things that are normal to be worrying about. But it is the magnitude of the worry that is out of proportion to its normal worry.

“But if it’s becoming something that’s sort of like a monster that’s taking over your life and it’s impairing your ability to do your normal activities, it’s really weighing on you, that’s when you probably need to seek help and get a little bit of assistance.”

How can getting help

impact your quality of life?

Boahene: “The whole point is not only screening, but also keeping tabs on them to say ‘OK, you have this stressor, what is your social support network? You’ve stopped your antidepressant or your anxiety medication. Now should we put you back on it?”

Anderson: “The first thing we do is try non-medical treatments, as long as it’s not severe and disabling anxiety. Referral to a counselor for what we call cognitive behavioral therapy — oftentimes that alone isn’t enough, then we use medication.”

Anderson: “Research has shown that if kids are anxious a lot of times we see that anxiety manifested in, they don’t want to go to school. We’ve been seeing more of this since COVID. Since kids were home learning. If we diagnose or find out about the anxiety, they they’re not going to do as well in school and those anxiety disorders can turn into other things. Like when they are anxious and they don’t know how to deal with that, then they might have discipline problems and then they might have anxiety problems that carries through life. And we have adults who are afraid to come out of their homes and things like that.

“So it can snowball and get a lot worse.”

Boahene: “With an anxiety disorder, it’s not just one thing. It’s kind of a bit of a spectrum. You will have people that don’t leave their homes — that is very severe. Some people have panic disorder so they feel like they are dying. And then you have people who just have real excessive worry and that does need to be treated, so it’s like a big tent basically. But the idea is if we can try to screen and assess that early, we can hopefully get that person into counseling and possible pharmacological treatment that would help lessen the impact and also give them some coping skills.”

Anderson: “In family medicine, we know our patients, we have those relationships. So our patients are very open and willing to tell us most of the time how they are feeling more than if they go to a new doctor or a specialist that they don’t know and have that relationship with.”

Anderson: “Another thing that is important is that anxiety can be related to an underlying medical condition such as an overactive or underactive thyroid condition. Sometimes it is very profound anemia or low blood count. In family medicine, we’re very much into preventative medicine and preventing diseases from progressing.”

Boahene: “What we want people to know is that they are not alone. In life, we go through ages and stages, things happen to people, there are definitely real life issues we all struggle with. But when you can’t get over that hump or you can’t seem to get any traction and it’s really impairing and interfering with your ability to move forward, that’s where you want to seek help and the doctor’s office.

“There are no stupid questions in here.”