Abstract
Objective : To obtain the incidence rate of anxiety disorders among the active duty Korean military personnel, who visited the military hospitals from 2011 to 2013, this descriptive epidemiological study was performed. Methods : After acquiring the data for the anxiety disorders from Defense Medical Statistics Information System, the annual incidence rates were analyzed by forces, position status, and specific disease entities. Results : One thousand, nine hundred and thirteen (1,913) active duty male military personnel were diagnosed with any kinds of anxiety disorders in their first visit to the psychiatric outpatient department (OPD). The total OPD visit counts were 7,870 during the same period. Anxiety disorder, NOS was the most frequent disorder, followed by panic disorder. While the incidence rate for anxiety disorder, NOS decreased, panic disorder displayed increasing tendency. Stress-related disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder were positioned third and fourth, respectively, for the number of first visit and they both showed decreasing tendency in annual incidence rates. Social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and mixed anxiety-depressive disorder followed next. The annual incidence rates for anxiety disorders showed decreasing tendency, particularly evident in army soldiers. However, naval officers showed higher anxiety disorder incidence rate compared to those of the army and the air forces. Conclusion : Comparing to general population, panic disorder was higher while specific phobias and GAD were lower in the Korean military. It is interesting to observe higher incidence rate for anxiety disorder in naval officers and warrants further evaluation.
