A Closer Lens on Gut Health, Stress, Mental Health in the Middle East: A Focus on Kuwait

Abstract

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), is a highly prevalent and disruptive disorder as it is highly resistant to both pharmacological and psychological treatments (Borkovec et al., 2002), and has a high financial burden on both the patient and primary and mental health care (Dibonaventura et al., 2014). While Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is considered the most effective treatment to deal with GAD, unfortunately, it is not always effective as less than 50% of the patients showed progress in follow-up assessments (Borkovec & Ruscio, 2001). There is a misconception that anxiety and stress are similar or even associated together; meaning if a person experiences one then by default he/she must have the other. While dealing with anxiety can be stressful, there is a defined fine line between both terms and an unclear relationship besides elucidating similarities in symptoms. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the association between generalized anxiety, stress, and gut health. If there is an association between all three factors, then it is possible that the tools for treating GAD are not entirely psychological but quite possibly a combination of psychological and physiological treatments. This study has been completed in Kuwait by 70 participants ages 18-65 who voluntarily took part in this online study powered by Qualtrics, an online encrypted and password protected survey builder.