Chapter 3: Anxiety Disorders Flashcards
What is the prevalence of anxiety disorders?
17%
When is anxiety in children considered abnormal?
When excessive and interfering with normal academic or social functioning.
What is Panic Disorder?
An anxiety disorder characterized by repeated, unexpected panic attacks. Consistent with feelings of terror/doom and an urge to escape.
What is the prevalence of Panic Disorder?
1-5%.
What is agoraphobia?
A fear of places and situations from which it might be difficult or embarrassing to escape.
What gender is agoraphobia most common in?
Women.
When is the onset of agoraphobia? prevalence?
Late adolescence, 2%
What is generalized anxiety disorder?
Anxiety disorder characterized by persistent feelings of dread and heightened sympathetic arousal.
What gender is GAD more common in? what is the prevalence? onset?
- Women.
- 8.7%
- Mid-teens to mid-20s.
What is GAD comorbid with?
Depression, OCD, anxiety disorders.
What are phobic disorders? What are the two types?
Disorders characterized by a persistent fear of objects or situations that are disproportionate to the threats they pose.
- Specific phobias.
- Social anxiety disorder.
What are the five diagnostic subtypes of specific phobia?
- Animal type.
- Natural environment type.
- Blood-injection-injury type.
- Situational type.
- Other.
What is social anxiety disorder? What subtype is more prevalent in men? women?
Excessive fear of negative evaluations from others.
Men: dating situations.
Women: speaking to authoritative figures and eating/drinking in front of others.
What is the prevalence of social anxiety disorder?
3%-13%
What is separation anxiety disorder?
Extreme fears of separation from parents or others on whom one is dependent.
What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
Recurrent obsessions, compulsions, or both that occupy more than an hour a day and cause marked distress or significantly interfere with normal routines or occupational or social functioning.
What is the prevalence of OCD?
1%
What is an obsession?
An intrusive, unwanted or recurrent thought that seems beyond a person’s ability to control.
What is a compulsion?
Repetitive behavior or mental act that a person feels compelled or driven to perform and often occur in response to obsessional thought.
What are the two categories of compulsions?
Checking rituals and cleaning rituals.
What is the psychodynamic perspective on anxiety disorders?
Anxiety is an attempt by the ego to control the conscious emergence of threatening impulses. The ego uses defence mechanisms to divert these impulses via projection and displacement.
What is the learning perspective on anxiety disorders?
Anxiety disorders are learned through conditioning and observational learning.
What is the cognitive perspective on anxiety disorders?
Self-defeating/irrational beliefs and oversensitivity in response to a subjective threat. Results in misinterpretation of bodily sensations and therefore intensification.
What is the biological perspective of anxiety disorders?
Genetic factors, NT levels, networking (neural connections)
What are the biological theories surrounding anxiety? (NT)
Low levels of GABA, high levels of serotonin/Norepinephrine or receptor dysfunction.
What are benzodiazepines?
Minor tranquilizers.
What is a biological perspective on OCD?
Increased activity between cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus.
What are biological treatments for anxiety?
SNRIs/SSRIs antidepressants, tranquilizers (benzodiazepines)
What are cognitive-behavioral based treatments?
Treatment of phobia;
- systematic desensitization via fear-stimulus hierarchy, gradual exposure, and flooding.
- cognitive restructuring.
What is the projected lifetime risk for PTSD?
9.2%
Which professionals are at greatest risk for PTSD?
Military, EMS, Police.
What are the defining symptoms of PTSD?
Re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, negative alternations in mood or thinking.
What is acute stress disorder?
Traumatic stress reaction occurring in the days and weeks following exposure to a traumatic event (4 weeks for less).
What is post traumatic stress disorder?
Impaired functioning following exposure to a traumatic experience, symptoms persist for at least one month and may last decades.
How are the hippocampi of severe PTSD inflicted individuals different from neurotypical people?
The hippocampi are smaller, and damaged.
What is trauma?
An imprint of a life-threatening event that continues to replay in the present; affects the brain and body.
Why is perceived control critical in dealing with trauma?
When there is no perceived control, an individual is more likely to develop trauma reactions.
What are differences in the prefrontal cortex seen with PTSD?
Dysfunctional though processing and decision making, inappropriate responses to situations.
What are differences in the amygdala seen with PTSD?
Fight/flight responses to memories or thoughts about trauma or danger.
What are the “red-flags” of PTSD?
- Frequent sick days.
- Angry/irritability.
- Interpersonal difficulties.
- Recklessness.
- Nightmares.
- Apathy.
- Unhealthy coping (drugs).
- Avoidance.
- Suicidal ideation.
What are risk factors for PTSD?
- Trauma intensity (death).
- Length of the traumatic event.
- Sustaining personal injury.
- Perception of control.
- Level of support following event.
What are key ways to prevent PTSD?
- Acknowledge that you are not immune.
- Find an outlet.
- Self-care.
- Choose to be around healthy people.
- Define yourself by more than your duty/job.
- Avoid “stuffing” in feelings.
What is done before commencing trauma processing during treatment? (Clinician)
- Provide info on the process.
- Obtain consent.
- Develop grounding strategies.
- Create trauma inventory.
- Consider frequency of sessions.
- Enlist outside support.
What three forms of exposure therapy are used in PTSD treatment?
Prolonged exposure, imaginal exposure, in vivo exposure.
What is imaginal exposure?
The patient describes the traumatic events in detail in the present tense with guidance.
What is in vivo exposure?
Involves confronting feared stimuli outside of therapy in a gradual fashion.
In what 4 ways does exposure therapy help treat PTSD?
- Habituation.
- Extinction.
- Self-efficacy.
- Emotional processing.
What is cognitive processing therapy?
A specific type of CBT that helps patients learn how to modify and challenge unhelpful beliefs related to trauma.
What is eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy?
-Encourages client to focus on trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation. Intended to change the way the memory is stored in the brain.
