Anxiety disorders and fear-related disorders Flashcards
What is the difference between fear and anxiety?
Fear is a response to the perceived imminent threat in the present, whereas anxiety is a response to a perceived anticipated threat in the future.
Describe the diagnostic criteria of generalised anxiety disorder.
Characterized by anxiety on most days over a period of at least several months.
Anxiety may be general or focused on everyday events such as health, family and work.
Other symptoms include muscle tension, sleep disturbance, difficulty concentrating and irritability.
Results in impairment in important functioning such as family and occupation.
Symptoms must not be due to another medical condition or use of substance or medication.
Describe the diagnostic criteria for agoraphobia.
Characterised by excessive fear in response to situations where escape might be difficult or help might not be available, e.g. being in crowds or alone outside.
These situations are actively avoided or endured with extreme distress.
Results in impairment of important areas of functioning.
Describe the diagnostic criteria for specific phobia (BII).
Characterised by excessive fear when exposed to, or in anticipation of a specific stimulus: blood, injection and injury.
Fear is disproportionate to actual danger.
Phobic stimulus will be actively avoided or endured with extreme distress.
Symptoms must persist for several months.
Results in impairment of important areas of functioning.
List the assessment tools for anxiety disorders and fear related disorders.
Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7)
Blood Injection Phobia Inventory (BIPI)
Describe GAD-7.
It is a screening test.
Consists of 7 items.
Each item is a statement describing anxiety e.g. “feeling afraid if something awful might happen”.
Individuals are asked to rate the item from 0 to 3. The score indicates the frequency of symptoms.
0 = not at all
1 = several days
2 = more than half the days
3 = nearly every day
Total score ranges from 0 to 21.
0 to 5 mild anxiety
6 to 10 moderate anxiety
11 to 15 moderately severe anxiety 15 to 21 severe anxiety
Describe BIPI.
Consists of 18 possible situations involving blood and injections.
For each situation, participants will be asked to rate from 0 to 3 a range of cognitive, physiological and behavioural responses.
0 = never
1 = sometimes
2 = almost always
3 = always
Describe the aims of Mas et al. (2010).
To see whether BIPI could discriminate between those diagnosed with BII phobia and those who were not.
To investigate whether blood phobia was a one-dimensional construct or it is influenced by a range of stimuli and responses.
To find out whether BIPI could identify a change in people with the phobia as a result of therapy.
Describe the sample of Mas et al. (2010)
39 participants diagnosed with BII phobia and a control group matched on age and gender.
Describe the procedure of Mas et al. (2010).
Participants completed BIPI and Fear Questionnaire.
Describe the results of Mas et al. (2010).
Showed that BIPI has good reliability and good concurrent validity with the blood phobia section of the FQ.
BIPI clearly discriminated between those diagnosed with BII phobia and those who were not.
BIPI is a sensitive tool in detecting therapeutic improvement.
Describe the results of Öst et al.
For those with blood phobia, 50% had at least one parent who also had blood phobia.
For those with injection phobia, 27% had at least one parent who also had injection phobia.
High proportion of participants with blood phobia and injection phobia had a history of fainting when exposed to phobic stimuli. These results are much higher than those with other specific phobias.
Öst concluded that there is a strong genetic link for these phobias, which are more likely than other phobias to produce a strong physiological response (fainting).
Describe the genetic explanation for fear-related disorder.
There are particular stimuli in the environment that may pose a threat to survival that we are more genetically setup to avoid. This is transmitted in our DNA through the generations to help our survival.
Describe the behavioural explanation for fear-related disorder.
The development of phobia can be explained by classical conditioning. A phobia develops when a neutral stimulus is associated with something a person is afraid of. Repeated associations or if the UCS is very terrifying the person will end up fearing the NS, which becomes the CS.
The maintenance of phobia can be explained by operant conditioning, using negative reinforcement. The avoidance of a phobic stimulus reduces the fear. This is the reward, and the avoidant behaviour will be encouraged to be repeated.
Describe the psychodynamic explanation for fear-related disorders.
Fear is a result when the impulses of the id are repressed into the unconscious to protect the ego. Phobia is the redirected fear during an intensely frightening experience onto an object. The phobic stimulus symbolizes the repressed conflict between the desires of the id and the desires of the superego. These conflicts often happen during psychosexual stage of development in childhood.
