Anxiety disorders Flashcards
Triple vulnerability model (Barlow, 2002)
Vulnerabilities increases sensitivity of the alarm trigger and involve:
- biological factors
- generalised psychological factors
- specific psychological factors
Biological factors
e.g. is the fact that individuals seem to inherit a general predisposition towards anxiety and depressive disorders
Generalised psychological factors
Include beliefs that the world is generally a dangerous place combined with broad expectations that events are beyond one’s control
specific psychological factors
Psychological factors that are specific to particular objects or situations and include factors that influence the expectation of a negative outcome when confronted with a specific object or event.
true alarms
Where fear occurs in response to direct danger. Acknowledging the capacity of the fight/flight response to prepare the body to deal with a threat more effectively
false alarms
In contrast to the true alarms, the fight/flight response occurs in situations that do not produce an immediate physical threat. It is also a hallmark of anxiety disorders
conditioning
A direct way to learn about potential dangers,
vicarious acquisition
Fear is acquired through process of modelling
informational pathway
describes the development of fear following the verbal transmission of danger-related information from others
Types of anxiety disorders
Specific phobias, Panic disorder and Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety disorder, Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
Diagnosis of Specific phobias
DSM-IV:
- marked and consistent fear when a specific object or situation is encountered
- fear is out of proportion to the danger posed by the object or situation
- fear causes emotional, social and/or occupational disruption
- lifetime prevalence s estimated 7-9%
- F to M ratio is 2:1
subtypes of Specific phobias
- animal
- natural environment (e.g. height, water)
- blood, injection and injury
- situational (e.g. airplanes, enclosed spaces)
epidemiology (Specific phobias)
- CH and early adolescence
- prevalence is greater among children than adults
- lifetime prevalence is estimated at 7-9%
aetiology (Specific phobias)
- evidence that phobias have a heritable component
- phobias may be acquired through classical (association) conditioning
- issues:
- phobic fears are not distributed evenly across all possible stimuli
- many with phobias do not recall an initial traumatic event
treatment - Specific phobias
- exposure therapy are most effective
- works through extinction
- also works by challenging expectations of danger leading to an increased sense of control