Background & objectives: Anxiety is a mental disorder that can occur following rape. Diagnosis and treatment of this disorder will help victims. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of anxiety among victims of rape referring to Isfahan province’s forensic medical center in 2015.

Methods: This study was descriptive and the study population consisted of 93 randomly selected subjects were referred to Isfahan Forensic Medical Center from April to September 2015. Study tool included demographic data sheet and SCL-90 questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation test, independent t-test and one way ANOVA were used in SPSS v.17 for data analysis.

Results: The results showed a significant positive association between rape experience and anxiety (p<0.001). The prevalence of anxiety was high in people who have been sexually assaulted. Also, the results showed that 6.5% (6 people) of patients had mild (0-1), 81.7% (76 people) moderate (1-3) and 11.8% (11 people) severe (3-4) anxiety. Regarding 9 sub-indices of anxiety index, 51.6 % (48 people) of the subjects had too much experience in a perpetual state of fear. Some of the victims, 49.5 % (46 people) felt palpitation and 39.8%(37 people) had sudden  and unknown fear, 29%(27 person) panic, 24.7%(23 person) impatience, 17.2 % (16 person) feeling of restlessness, 12.9%(12 person) nightmare and  4.3%(4 person) anxiety.

Conclusion: The results showed that the majority of victims of sexual assault had mental disorders such as anxiety. Due to the increasing rate of sexual assults on women and the recognition of rape as a disruptive factor for mental health, strategies and resources should be allocated for the prevention of aggression and its adverse consequences such as anxiety and early diegnosis and treatment of this disease and other complications.