Comorbidity of anxiety and depression.

Many factors obscure the diagnosis of psychogenic disorders, especially anxiety and depression. The factors involved include an overlap of symptoms, discrepancies in diagnostic criteria, and the unreliability of self- and observer-reporting. Differentiation among the various personality disorders is, however, extremely important, both for identifying the most appropriate treatment plan for a given patient and for evaluating the therapeutic activity of newly developed pharmacologic agents. Emerging factors that may have an impact on differential diagnoses of anxiety and depression include age at onset, family history, and personality traits associated with different types of psychopathology.