The purposes of this study were 1) to identify patterns and trends of studies of anxiety and stress and 2) to provide direction on which to base further research. Research studies of anxiety and stress were selected from journals of medical and nursing schools, the Korean Nurse, the Korean Nurses' Academic Society Journal, the Central Journal of Medicine, the New Medical Journal, Monthly Nurse, and from theses and dissertations, which had been conducted for the 20 years from 1970 to 1990. The total population of the studies numbered 463. Seven studies were excluded from the analysis because of duplication, so that 252 studies of anxiety and 204 of stress were analyzed. These studies were analyzed for 1) time of publication or presentation, 2) research design, 3) characteristics of subjects used in each study, 4) types of correlated variables, and 5) types of nursing interventions. Findings obtained in the study were as follows : 1. The number of studies related to anxiety and stress has increased rapidly since the early 1980's. 2. The studies were primarily descriptive throughout the 20 years. However, correlational studies, comparative studies and experimental studies slowly increased. 3. Anxiety studies tend to be conducted more on patients and stress studies with normal subjects in non-experimental research. However, experimental studies were conducted more with patients than with normal subjects. 4. In correlational studies, the trend was to study physical conditions in relation to anxiety, and coping and adaptation in relation to stress. 5. In experimental studies, teaching and information therapy and relaxation were the most popular interventions for anxiety, and supportive care for stress. On the bases of these findings, the following recommendations were made : 1. These patterns of studies related to anxiety and stress in Korea need to be compared with studies conducted in other countries. 2. More attention is needed in terms of research design, reliability and validity of tools, and results of statistical analysis. 3. Meta-analysis should be done to analyze and integrate the results of various studies. 4. For theory testing and identification of useful intervention methods, experimental studies with the same protocols must be conducted rather than more descriptive studies.