Objective: The aim of this article was to critically examine options for the future classification of the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) group of anxiety disorders.
Conclusions: There is a strong trend towards the narrowing of the current DSM group of anxiety disorders and to the adopting of a different name for it. A future conceptualization of the conditions currently classified as anxiety disorders will be useful to the extent that it espouses a longitudinal diagnostic approach and acknowledges a lack of clear boundaries between anxiety and related disorders.