The Usefulness of the Korean Version of Penn State Worry Questionnaire for Screening Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Receiver Operating Characteristic Analysis

Abstract

Objective Excessive worry about minor matters and a state in which this worry is experienced as uncontrollable are known to be keysymptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Given the importance of pathological worry in GAD, the need for psychometricallysound measures of this construct has increased. The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of the Korean version ofPenn State Worry Questionnaire (K-PSWQ) for screening GAD. Methods Two hundred and forty six patients were initially screened, from which 102 GAD patients and 118 patients with anxiety disordernot otherwise specified (anxiety disorder NOS) were finally enrolled. Patients were diagnosed by a structured clinical interview forthe DSM-IV Axis I. We also enrolled 114 control subjects who had no medical or psychiatric history. Pathological worry in both patientsand control subjects were assessed at baseline using the PSWQ and we estimated optimal cutoff score by the receiver operating characteristic(ROC) analysis. Results We found that in the first ROC analysis, a score of 53 could simultaneously optimize sensitivity and specificity in order to discriminateGAD patients from control subjects. From the second receiver operating characteristic analysis, when both sensitivity andspecificity were optimized, we can suggest a score of 61 as being the cutoff for differentiating GAD patients from patients with anxietydisorder NOS. Conclusion The Korean version of PSWQ is a useful method for screening GAD patients, although ethnic and cultural differencesmay affect the cutoff score of PSWQ for GAD.