[Change in the diagnosis and therapy of anxiety disorders. 1: Phenomenology of anxiety and new approaches in the classification of anxiety disorders].

The pathological states anxiety neurosis and phobias, diagnostically classified under the neuroses, are, influenced by a recent American diagnostic classification, now designated anxiety disorders in clinical psychiatry. With this approach, which is more phenomenological than etiological in orientation, new diagnostic possibilities--among other things--have arisen. In the first place, an accurate differentiation of periodic and chronic states of anxiety can be made, while the clinical phenomena can be considered from various aspects, in order to evaluate simultaneously 1. the current clinical manifestation, 2. the underlying personality traits, and 3. the physical disorders presenting.