Decision Aid for Patients With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Patient decision aids (PtDAs) are tools that assist patients in making health decisions, when there is uncertainty about treatment choice, incorporating their personal preferences and values about the available treatment options. This PtDA will include information about GAD symptoms, diagnosis, causes, and benefits and risks associated to psychological and pharmacological treatments for GAD (based on the Clinical Practice Guidelines-GAD). It will also include a values clarification exercise, in which patients will have to rate the importance attributed to the different aspects of treatments (e.g., mode of administration, benefits, risks, time to improvement, probability of relapse).

Patients in the control group will receive a fact sheet (one page) with general information on mental health as a part of usual care provided by the Canary Islands Health Service.