Cognitive Symptoms Link Anxiety and Depression Within a Validation of the German State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety (STICSA).

The central role of cognitive symptoms in these dynamic interactions suggests an overlap of these symptoms between anxiety and depression and that differential diagnostics should focus more on anxious somatic symptoms than on cognitive symptoms. The STICSA could therefore be useful in delineating differences between anxiety and depression and for differential assessment of mood and anxiety symptoms. Additional understanding of both cognitive and somatic aspects of anxiety might prove useful for therapeutic interventions.