Write a 12 pages paper on evaluating the case for differential diagnosis between anxiety disorders and depression. In May 2013, the American Psychiatric Association is expected to launch the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). This manual will make revisions on the present diagnostic criteria for psychiatric conditions. This has been necessitated by co-morbidity which is described as a condition of where a patient has two or more diseases concurrently and it is, therefore, difficult to diagnose one disorder from the other. This implies that in psychiatry, a single diagnosis is inadequate to explain all the symptoms. Conditions currently under review include depression, anxiety, bipolar and related conditions, dissociative disorders, and neuro-cognitive disorder among others. DSM-5 will lead to the regrouping of clinical conditions with some distinct conditions being classified as unique disorders while others will remain separate. In paper aims to discuss whether depression and anxiety should be regrouped as unique disorders or should remain as separate disorders. Anxiety disorders have been classified as the 2nd most common mental disorders which are more frequently misdiagnosed or missed (Casey and Pillay, 2008). Anxious persons are characterized by a form of discriminatory processing that favors the encoding of frightening information. On the other hand, a person going through clinical depression is characterized by having a low mood, negative personal attitudes, helplessness and hopelessness, and a high level of sadness (Gilmour and Patten, 2007). An individual is usually advised to go for diagnosis in clinical depression in case the signs and symptoms are prolonged over a period of weeks or months thereby interfering with work. To effectively discuss this, the paper will be based on the similarities and differences between the two conditions.

According to Ungar and Shear (2004), anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric disorders. Anxiety disorders affect the functioning and quality of life in a similar way as the results of depression disorder and other serious medical disorders. However, not all levels of anxiety are considered as disorders.