Anxiety

Question 1

What is Generalised anxiety disorder characterised by?

Answer 1

GAD is characterised by: difficulty to control excessive anxiety and worry and associated with at least 3 of the following: restlessness or feeling keyed-up or on edge, being easily fatigued, difficulty concentrating or mind going blank, irritability and muscle tension, sleep disturbance or suicidal ideation and suicide

Question 2

What can trigger an episode of panic disorder?

Answer 2

Injury (e.g., accidents, surgery), illness, interpersonal conflict or loss, use of cannabis, use of stimulants, such as caffeine, decongestants, cocaine or sympathomimetics (e.g. amphetamine, “ecstasy”), certain settings, such as stores and public transportation (especially in patients with agoraphobia)

Question 3

Symptoms of panic disorders

Answer 3

 Palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate, chest pain or discomfort.
 Sweating, trembling or shaking, chills or hot flashes.
 Shortness of breath or feeling of smothering or choking sensation.
 Nausea or abdominal distress, dizzy, unsteady, lightheaded, or faint.
 De-realisation (i.e. feeling of unreality) or de-personalisation (i.e. being detached from oneself).
 Fear of losing control or going crazy, fear of dying.
 Paraesthesia’s (i.e. numbness or tingling sensations).
 Headache, cold hands, diarrhoea, insomnia, fatigue, intrusive thoughts, and ruminations

Question 4

What is OCD caused by?

Answer 4

Caused by an incident where the person had a bad experience which led to certain behaviour to prevent repeating the same experience

Question 5

How is OCD diagnosed?

Answer 5

primarily by presentation and history through two components; obsessions (contamination, safety, doubting one’s memory or perception, need for order or symmetry, unwanted and intrusive sexual/aggressive thought) and compulsions (repeating actions a certain number of times or until it “feels right” of cleaning, washing, checking, counting; arranging objects; touching/tapping objects or hoarding, confessing/seeking reassurance, list making)

Question 6

How can OCD be assessed?

Answer 6

OCD can be assessed using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) which consists of 10 items, 5 for obsessions and 5 for compulsions each scored 0-4 (total score 0-40).

Question 7

Diagnosis of PTSD?

Answer 7

Experiencing, witnessing, or being confronted with an event involving serious injury, death, or a threat to a person’s physical integrity e.g., helplessness, intense fear, or horror, The persistent re-experiencing of the event in one of several ways e.g., thoughts or perception, images, dreams, illusions, hallucinations, dissociative flashback episodes, symptoms of hyper arousal, and 2 or more of: difficulty sleeping or falling asleep, decreased concentration, hyper-vigilance, outbursts of anger or irritable mood or exaggerated startle response and avoidance of stimuli that are associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness; with the presence of 3 or more of the following:
o Avoidance of thoughts, feelings, or conversations that are associated with the event.
o Avoidance of people, places, or activities that may trigger recollections of the event.
o Inability to recall important aspects of the event.
o Significantly diminished interest or participation in important activities and detachment from others.
o Narrowed range of affect.
o Sense of having a foreshortened future.

The duration of relevant symptoms should be more than 1 month