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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 19, 1993                   TAG: 9303190066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

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ANXIETY DISORDER TAB IS $46 BILLION

Anxiety disorders cost the United States $46.6 billion in 1990, much of it due to reduced or lost productivity, a study estimates.

The amount accounts for 32 percent of the total costs of all mental disorders in 1990, researchers said.

The study, by researchers at the Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc., in Rockville, Md., was to be released today at the annual meeting of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America.

The study covered:

Panic disorder, in which people experience sudden bouts of panic.

Social phobia, persistent fear of being scrutinized by others and doing something embarrassing.

Simple phobia, irrational fear of particular things.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, which traps people in a repetitive pattern of senseless and distressing thoughts and behaviors.

- Associated Press

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