Anxiety Disorders Flashcards
What is an anxiety disorder?
A type of psychological disorder in which anxiety is the prominent feature
How can anxiety be adaptive?
It can prompt us to seek medical attention, to study for an upcoming test, or to avoid a dangerous situation
How can anxiety be maladaptive?
When the level of anxiety is out of proportion to the level of threat or when it occurs out of the blue, and not a response to environmental changes
What are some physical features of anxiety disorders?
Jumpiness, jitters, increased perspiration and heart rate, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea
What are some behavioural features of anxiety disorders?
Need to escape or avoid a situation, agitation, clinginess, need for reassurance
What are some cognitive features of anxiety disorders?
Excessive and prolonged worrying, overly aware of bodily sensations, jumbled thoughts, nagging thoughts
Is anxiety normal in children?
Yes, childhood anxieties and fear are a normal feature of childhood
Childhood fears are commonplace and are usually outgrown naturally
Only considered abnormal when excessive and interferes with normal functioning
What is a panic attack?
Intense anxiety reactions accompanied by physical symptoms such as a pounding heart, rapid respiration, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing
How long do panic attacks typically last?
They usually peak in intensity at 10 minutes are last for 20 minutes
What is panic disorder?
Repeated, unexpected panic attacks
Feelings of terror/doom and an urge to escape
Feels like having a heart attack
Can occur from a calm state or an anxious state
What is agoraphobia?
A fear of places and situations from which it might be difficult or embarrassing to escape
When does agoraphobia typically begin?
Late adolescence to mid twenties
More common in women than men
What is generalized anxiety disorder?
Characterized by persistent feelings of anxiety that are not triggered by anything specifically
Formerly referred to as free-floating anxiety
What are some other symptoms of GAD?
Restlessness, feeling tense or on edge, easily fatigued, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, difficulty sleeping
When does GAD typically begin?
Mid-teens to mid-20’s
More common in women
A comorbidity with depressive, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorders
What are phobic disorders?
Persistent fears of objects of situations that are disproportionate to the threats they pose
Usually involve fears of the ordinary things in life
What are the two types of phobic disorders?
Specific phobia
Social anxiety disorder
What are specific phobias?
Persistent but excessive fears of a specific object or situation
Animals, heights, closed spaces
What are the 5 diagnostic subtypes of specific phobias?
Animal type Natural environment type Blood-injection-injury type Situational type Other types
What is social anxiety disorder?
Excessive fear of negative evaluations from others
People with social anxiety disorders often worry about their social presentation and may avoid social situations altogether
Is separation anxiety normal in children?
Yes, it is normal for children to show anxiety when they are separated from their caregivers
What is separation anxiety disorder?
When the separation anxiety is persistent and excessive or inappropriate for the child’s developmental level
Development typically follows a stressful life event
What is obsessive-compulsive disorder?
Recurrent obsession, compulsions, or both that occupy more than an hour a day and cause marked distress or significantly interfere with normal routines
What is an obsession?
An intrusive, unwanted, and recurrent though, image, or urge that seems beyond a person’s ability to control
What is a compulsion?
Repetitive behaviour or mental act that a person feels compelled or driven to perform and often occur in response to obsessional thoughts
What are the two categories of compulsion?
Checking rituals
Cleaning rituals
How does the psychodynamic perspective view anxiety disorders?
Anxiety disorders are attempts by the ego to control the conscious emergence of threatening impulses
The ego will mobilize defence mechanisms to divert these impulses
How do learning and behaviour theorists view anxiety disorder?
They explain anxiety disorders through conditioning and observational learning
What is the two-factor model?
Both operant and classical conditioning are involved in the acquisition of phobias
How are phobias maintained?
They are maintained by operant conditioning
What is prepared conditioning?
The belief that people are genetically prepared to acquire phobias are certain stimuli that threaten our survival
What are self-defeating beliefs?
They heighten and perpetuate anxiety disorders
What are irrational beliefs?
May involve exaggerated needs to be approved of by everyone one meets and to avoid any situation in which negative appraisal from others might arise
What is oversensitivity to threats?
People with anxiety perceive danger in situations that most people consider safe
What is anxiety sensitivity?
A fear of fear
A fear that ones emotions or states of bodily arousal will get our of control, leading to harmful consequences
What are misattributions for panic attacks?
Panic attacks involve catastrophic misinterpretations of such bodily sensations as heart palpitations, dizziness, or light-headedness
What is the cognitive model of panic disorder?
Subjective threat
Misinterpretations of bodily sensations
Intensification of bodily sensations
Increased anxiety and fear
What is the role of genetic factors in anxiety disorders?
Higher concordance of anxiety rates in identical twins
Genes with broad effects for anxiety may be linked to neuroticism
How do people with high levels of neuroticism behave?
Tend to cope poorly with stress and frequently experience feelings of anxiety, anger, guilt, and depression
What is GABA?
An inhibitory neurotransmitter that plays a role regulating anxiety
Inadequate action of GABA may contribute to states of anxiety
What are benzodiazepines?
Class of minor tranquilizers that include valium and Ativan
How do dysfunctions with serotonin or norepinephrine affect people?
May cause anxiety disorders
What is the fear network?
Responses to fear are mediated by the fear network
Centred in the amygdala
Involve interaction with the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex
How are OCD and the brain linked?
Patients with OCD exhibit increased activity in the neurotransmitter circuits between the cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus
Lack of inhibitory effect on the OCD pathway
What are social-environmental factors for anxiety disorders?
Threatening of traumatic events Observing fear responses in others Challenging demands in new situations Cultural factors leading to socialization in passive or dependent roles Lack of social support
What behavioural factors for anxiety disorders?
Conditioning experiences
Lack of extinction opportunities
What are emotional and cognitive factors for anxiety disorders?
Unresolved psychological conflicts Cognitive factors -self-defeating or irrational thinking -catastrophic misinterpretations of bodily cues -oversensitivity to threats -low self-efficacy
What are biological factors for anxiety disorders?
Genetic predisposition
Disturbances in neurotransmitter activity or suffocation alarm system
Abnormalities in brain circuits involved in signalling danger or inhibiting repetitive behaviours
What is the psychodynamic approach to treating psychology?
Foster awareness of how clients anxiety disorders symbolize their inner conflicts so that the ego can be freed from expending its energy on repression
What is the humanistic approach to treating psychology?
Aim at helping people get in touch with and express their genuine talents and feelings
Clients become free to discover and accept their true selves
What are SSRIs?
Antidepressant common for treating panic disorder
OCD responds to SSRIs
What are SNRIs?
New drug that helps reduce anxiety symptoms
What is systematic desensitization?
A gradual process in which clients learn to handle progressively more disturbing stimuli while they remain relaxed
What is the fear-stimulus hierarchy?
Ordered series of increasingly fearful stimuli
What is gradual exposure?
Help people overcome phobias through a stepwise approach of actual exposure to the phobic stimuli
Effective for social anxiety disorder
What is flooding?
A type of exposure where subjects are exposed to intensely anxiety-provoking situations
What is cognitive restructuring?
Involves replacing irrational or self-defeating thoughts with rational alternatives
What is the best way to treat agoraphobia?
Gradual exposure to fear-inducing stimuli
How is PTSD treated?
With exposure therapy
Exposure cues may involve talking about trauma, re-experiencing the trauma in imagination
How is OCD treated?
Behaviour therapy works great with a combination of exposure and response prevention
How is GAD treated?
Use a combination of techniques
- relaxation training
- substitution of adaptive thoughts for intrusive, anxiety-inducing thoughts
- decatastrophizing
How is separation anxiety treated?
Strengthen the child’s sense of autonomy and self-efficacy
Exposure
How is panic disorder treated?
Training in skills to handle panic attacks
Breathing retraining
Exposure to situations linked to panic attacks
