Anxiety Disorders

Question 1

Fear/ Anxiety can be good because these emotions have helped us to survive! But like everything else, to a certain extent

Question 2

Specific phobia

Answer 2

intense fear of objects or situations that is out of proportion to any real danger

Question 3

Social anxiety disorder

Answer 3

Marked fear of unfamiliar people or social scrutiny

Question 4

Panic disorder

Answer 4

• anxiety about recurrent panic attacks
• has to be followed by 1 month of the above

Question 5

Agoraphobia

Answer 5

• anxiety about being in places where escaping or getting help would be difficult if anxiety symptoms occurred
• often comorbid with and may frequently arise as a consequence of panic attacks

Question 6

Generalized anxiety disorder and for long?

Answer 6

• uncontrollable worry
• for at least 6 months

Question 7

What are key shared features?

Answer 7

• excessiveness
• avoidance
• clinically significant distress or impairment
• no universal, objective demarcating line

Question 8

Comorbidity

Answer 8

• 80% of those with an anxiety disorder meet criteria for another anxiety disorder
• 75% meet for another type of psychological disorder

Question 9

What are the two types of conditioned learning of fears (Mowrer)

Answer 9

• classical conditioning
• operant conditioning

Question 10

What are the extensions of Mowrer’s model?

Answer 10

• coincident panic attack
• prior learning
• social and vicarious learning
• individual differences

Question 11

Evolutionary Preparation

Answer 11

much easier to condition to be scared of a snake than of a flower

Question 12

A fear circuit with what parts of the brain? A lot of neurotransmitters are also implicated

Answer 12

• amygdala
• hippocampus
• medial prefrontal cortex

Question 13

What type of personality & temperament?

Answer 13

• negative affectivity
• very shy (temperament)

Question 14

Cognition (4 bullet points)

Answer 14

• perceived lack of control over one’s environment
• beliefs about the future
• cognitive biases (bias toward interpreting neutral information as threatening)
• childhood trauma and adversity

Question 15

Cognitive factors of social anxiety disorder

Answer 15

• unrealistic beliefs about consequences of behavior
• negative self-evaluation
• heightened self-awareness
• upward social comparison
• attention to and interpretation of possible social threat cues

Question 16

what is anxiety sensitivity in panic disorder?

Answer 16

• tendency to focus on bodily sensations and interpret the bodily sensations as potentially harmful

Question 17

Functional models of worry

Answer 17

• attempts to control worries can backfire
• believe that worrying is useful
• worrying suppresses physiological arousal
• worrying distracts/avoids

Question 17

Exposure as treatment

Answer 17

• involves facing the problem
• can take various forms
• should include as many features of the trigger as possible
• reduce or eliminate use of safety behaviors

Question 18

Old school exposure?

Answer 18

habituation model: do it til you are bored

Question 19

New school exposure?

Answer 19

inhibitory learning model: learning to feel safe

Question 20

Cognitive components

Answer 20

• increase belief in ability to cope
• challenge unhelpful beliefs
• post- exposure debriefing
• increase mindfulness and self compassion

Question 21

What is Unified protocol in treatment?

Answer 21

helps people manage anxiety
- cope
- challenge
- face

Question 22

Medications used?

Answer 22

• Benzo (Xanax)
• SSRIs or SNRIs

Question 23

CBT is generally better than medication especially for relapse risk

Question 24

The goal of treatment is not to 100% eliminate the experience of anxiety/fear

Question 25

Anxiety disorders are highly comorbid with each other and share many common causes/explanations