Anxiety, Trauma And Stressor Related, And Obsessive Compulsive And Related Disorders Flashcards
What is anxiety?
Is a future oriented negative mood state characterised by bodily symptoms of physical tension and by apprehension about the future.
What is fear?
Is an immediate alarm reaction to danger.
It is an immediate emotional reaction to current danger characterised by strong escapist action tendencies and often, a surge in the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.
The word panic originates from?
From the Greek God Pan, who terrified travellers with bloodcurdling screams.
In psychopathology, a panic attack is defined as?
An abrupt experience of intense fear or acute discomfort, accompanied by physical symptoms that usually include heart palpitations, chest pains, shortness of breath, and, possibly, dizziness.
Unexpected panic attacks are mostly associated with what disorder?
Panic disorder.
Expected panic attacks are more common in what types of disorders?
Specific phobias and social disorder.
Increasing evidence shows that we inherit a tendency to be tense, uptight and anxious. Is there also the same tendency for panic?
The tendency for panic also seems to run in families and probably has a genetic component that differs somewhat from genetic contributions to anxiety.
Anxiety is also associated with specific brain circuits and neurotransmitter systems. For example, depleted levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid(GABA), part of the GABA benzodiazepine system, are associated with…
Increased anxiety
In regards to anxiety, increasing attention in the past several years is focusing on the role of the ……… system and the group of …… that increase the likelihood that this system will be turned on.
Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system
Genes
Why is the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system seen as central to the expression of anxiety?
The corticotropin-releasing factor system activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis which is part of the corticotropin-releasing factor system, and this CRF system has wide ranging effects on areas of the brain implicated in anxiety.
The corticotropin-releasing factor system has wide ranging effects on areas of the brain implicated in anxiety which include?
The emotional brain (limbic system), and in particular the hippocampus and the amygdala;
The locus coeruleus in the brain stem;
The prefrontal cortex;
The dopaminergic neurotransmitter system
The corticotropin-releasing factor system is also directly related to what 3 other systems?
GABA-benzodiazepine system
Serotonergic and noradrenergic neurotransmitter systems
What is the main role of the limbic system in relation to anxiety?
Acts as a mediator between the brain stem and the cortex.
What is the main role of the brain stem in relation to anxiety?
Monitors and senses changes in bodily functions and relays these potential danger signals to higher cortical processes through the limbic system.
An important study indicated that the presence of any anxiety disorder was uniquely and significantly associated with?
Thyroid disease
Respiratory disease
Gastrointestinal disease
Arthritis
Migraine headaches
Allergic conditions
What is characterised by muscle tension, mental agitation, susceptibility to fatigue, some irritability and difficulty sleeping?
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
What is a characteristic that distinguishes generalised anxiety disorder from other anxiety disorders?
People with GAD mostly worry about minor, everyday life events.
When individuals with generalised anxiety disorder are compared with nonanxious participants, the one physiological measure that consistently distinguishes the anxious group is?
Muscle tension: people with GAD are chronically tense
Evidence indicates that individuals with generalised anxiety disorder are highly sensitive to?
Threat in general, particularly to a threat that has personal relevance
This high sensitivity to threat in individual’s with generalised anxiety disorder seems to be entirely automatic or unconscious. What evidence supports this?
The stroop colour-naming task
The colours of threatening words were named more slowly than with nonanxious individuals, even though the words were presented too quickly to be conscious of the words.
Many people with generalised anxiety disorder also inherit a tendency to be tense (generalised biological vulnerability), and they develop a sense early on that important events in their lives may be uncontrollable and potentially dangerous (generalised psychological vulnerability), especially under stress. In addition, they use worry as a way to deal with this uncontrollability. Explain?
One way to avoid feeling disappointed is to adjust your expectations. If you expect the outcome to be worse than it probably will turn out to be, then you won’t be disappointed.
True or False: Most studies show that in the majority of cases of generalised anxiety disorder, onset is earlier in adulthood as an immediate response to a life stressor?
False
It is more gradual
True or False: Cognitive-behavioural treatment and other psychological treatments for GAD are probably better than drug therapy in the long run.
True
People with panic disorder experience severe, unexpected panic attacks; they may think they’re dying or otherwise losing control. In many cases panic disorder is accompanied by a closely related disorder called?
Agoraphobia
