The quality and clinical applicability of recommendations in anxiety disorders guidelines: A systematic review of seventeen guidelines from seven countries

Background: Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders, for which some countries and organizations have developed guidelines. It is necessary to understand the quality of these guidelines.

Methods: The relevant guidelines were searched systematically by five reviewers using Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II and AGREE Recommendation Excellence (AGREE-REX) instruments. The scores in each domain were descriptively analyzed, and guidelines from different countries were compared.

Results: Seventeen guidelines were included. The scores in the domains "rigor of development" and "applicability" were the lowest and ranged from 16% to 77% and 25% to 71%, respectively. The scores in the domains "implementability" and "values and preferences" were similar and ranged from 30% to 67% and 25% to 77%. In terms of the comparison among countries, the Canadian guidelines achieved the highest scores in many domains but only scored 43% in the domain of "values and preferences". The Indian guidelines scored less than 50% in many domains but achieved a high score of 83% in the domain "scope and purpose".

Limitations: Language restrictions may cause selection bias. Besides, insufficient reports may lead to deviation of assessment results.

Conclusions: There was no obvious advantage in guidelines from different countries. There was still a lot of room for improvement in some domains, especially "applicability", "implementability", "rigor of development" and "values and preferences".