Study: Women More Prone to Anxiety

Struggling with anxiety? Then odds are you're a woman and you live in either North America or Western Europe.

That's the conclusion of a new British study that found that women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety as men.

Moreover, people in North America and Western Europe are more prone to anxiety disorders than those from other parts of the world. In North America, nearly eight of 100 people suffer from anxiety -- the most in the world. In East Asia, it's fewer than three in 100 -- the lowest, the review authors noted.

"Anxiety is important and shouldn't be overlooked," said lead researcher Olivia Remes, who's with the department of public health and primary care at the University of Cambridge's Strangeways Research Laboratory. "Sometimes people think that anxiety is just a part of their personality or that there's nothing they can do about it, but there is."

Anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive worry, fear and avoidance of potentially stressful situations, such as social gatherings.

The study findings were published in the June issue of the journal Brain and Behavior.

For more about anxiety, visit the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.