Frequency of self-reported 'anxiolytic withdrawal' symptoms in a group of female students experiencing anxiety.

This study describes the occurrence of self-reported perceptual phenomena in students experiencing anxiety. Phenomena like hypersensitivity to touch, hyposensitivity to taste and smell, and unusual tastes and smells appear to be non-specific and to be closely related to the level of anxiety. They emphasize the need for the development of techniques to elicit perceptual phenomena, and to investigate their occurrence and the intensity of their phenomena in variously defined groups. These also have implications for the assessment of benzodiazepine withdrawal syndromes.