Whites more anxious than blacks

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., March 4 (UPI) -- Non-Hispanic whites had higher rates of generalized anxiety disorder than African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans in the United States, researchers say.

Jose Soto of the Pennsylvania State University said generalized anxiety disorder may manifest in chronic worrying, intrusive thoughts and difficulty concentrating, and physical symptoms such as tension headaches, extreme fatigue and ulcers.

"One interesting finding from the study is that non-racial discrimination seems to be associated with the development of generalized anxiety disorder for all three groups in the sample," Soto said in a statement. "More than 7 percent of whites reported incidents of racial discrimination, but about 49 percent of non-Hispanic whites said they suffered other forms of discrimination -- age and gender."

African-Americans who reported increased instances of racial discrimination had significantly higher odds of suffering generalized anxiety disorder.

Using data from the National Survey of American Life involving 5,899 American adults -- including 3,570 African-Americans, 1,438 Afro-Caribbeans and 891 non-Hispanic whites -- the researchers found more than 40 percent reported they experienced some form of racial discrimination and approximately 4.5 percent reported suffering from generalized anxiety disorder.

Although 39 percent of Afro-Caribbeans reported examples of racial discrimination, only 2.69 percent had ever developed generalized anxiety disorder, the researchers said.

Though experiences of racial discrimination among non-Hispanic whites were not associated with the development of generalized anxiety disorder, age and gender discrimination were.

The findings are published in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders.