222 Anxiety Disorders
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Diagnostic Criteria 300.02 (F41.1)
A. Excessive anxiety and worry (apprehensive expectation), occurring more days than
not for at least 6 months, about a number of events or activities (such as work or school
performance). 
B. The individual finds it difficult to control the worry. 
C. The anxiety and worry are associated with three (or more) of the following six symp-
toms (with at least some symptoms having been present for more days than not for the
past 6 months):
Note: Only one item is required in children.
1. Restlessness or feeling keyed up or on edge.
2. Being easily fatigued.
3. Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank.
4. Irritability.
5. Muscle tension.
6. Sleep disturbance (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless, unsatisfying
sleep).
D. The anxiety, worry, or physical symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impair-
ment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
E. The disturbance is not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a
drug of abuse, a medication) or another medical condition (e.g., hyperthyroidism).
F. The disturbance is not better explained by another mental disorder (e.g., anxiety or
worry about having panic attacks in panic disorder, negative evaluation in social anxi-
ety disorder [social phobia], contamination or other obsessions in obsessive-compul-
sive disorder, separation from attachment  figures in separation anxiety disorder,
reminders of traumatic events in posttraumatic stress disorder, gaining weight in an-
orexia nervosa, physical complaints in somatic symptom disorder, perceived appear-
ance flaws in body dysmorphic disorder, having a serious illness in illness anxiety