Chapter 4 Anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and trauma-related disorders QUIZ 1 Flashcards
acute stress disorder
a short-lived anxiety reaction to a traumatic event; if it lasts more than a month, it is diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder
agoraphobia
literally, fear of the marketplace; anxiety disorder in which the person fears situations in which it would be embarrassing or difficult to escape if panic symptoms occurred; most commonly diagnosed in some individuals with panic disorder
anxiety
an unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension accompanied by increased physiological arousal; can be assessed by self-report, measuring physiological arousal and observing overt behaviour
anxiety disorders
disorders in which fear or anxiety is overriding; include phobic disorders, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and agoraphobia
anxiolytics
minor tranquilisers or benzodiazepines used to treat anxiety disorders
behavioural inhibition
the tendency to exhibit anxiety or to freeze when facing threat. In infants, it manifests as a tendency to become agitated and cry when faced with novel stimuli and may be a heritable predisposition for the development of anxiety disorders
benzodiazepines
any of several drugs commonly used to treat anxiety, such as Valium and Xanax
body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)
a disorder marked by preoccupation with an imagined or exaggerated defect in appearance — for example, facial wrinkles or excess facial or body hair
caudate nucleus
a nucleus within the basal ganglia involved in learning and memory that is implicated in body dysmorphic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder
compulsion
the irresistible impulse to repeat an irrational act or thought over and over again
depersonalisation
- an alteration in perception of the self in which
- the individual loses a sense of reality
- and feels estranged from the self
- and perhaps separated from the body;
- may be a temporary reaction to stress and fatigue
- or part of panic disorder, depersonalisation disorder or schizophrenia
derealisation
loss of the sense that the surroundings are real; present in several psychological disorders, such as panic disorder, depersonalisation disorder and schizophrenia
dissociation
a process whereby a group of mental processes is split off from the main stream of consciousness or behaviour loses its relationship with the rest of the personality
exposure and response prevention (ERP)
the most widely used and accepted treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which the sufferer is prevented from engaging in compulsive ritual activity and instead faces the anxiety provoked by the stimulus, leading eventually to extinction of the conditioned response (anxiety)
fear
a reaction to real or perceived immediate danger in the present; can involve arousal or sympathetic nervous system activity
fear circuit
set of brain structures, including the amygdala, that tend to be activated when the individual is feeling anxious or fearful; especially active among people with anxiety disorders
fear-of-fear hypothesis
a cognitive model for the aetiology of agoraphobia; suggests the condition is driven by negative thoughts about the consequences of having a panic attack in public
generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
a disorder characterised by chronic, persistent anxiety and worry
hoarding disorder
a disorder in which the person has a compulsive need to acquire objects and extreme difficulty in disposing of those objects
imaginal exposure
treatment for anxiety disorders that involves visualising feared scenes for extended periods of time; frequently used in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder when in vivo exposure to the initial trauma cannot be conducted
in vivo exposure
real-life exposure to the object or situation that is feared, such as exposure to a phobia (such as a snake) or returning to the location where the traumatic event has taken place
interoceptive conditioning
classical conditioning of panic attacks in response to internal bodily sensations of arousal (as opposed to the external situations that trigger anxiety)
locus coeruleus
the brain region in the fear circuit that is especially important in panic disorder; the major source in the brain of norepinephrine, which helps trigger sympathetic nervous system activity
medial prefrontal cortex
a region of the cortex in the anterior frontal lobes involved in executive function and emotion regulation that is implicated in mood and anxiety disorders
Mowrer’s two-factor model
Mowrer’s theory of avoidance learning according to which (1) fear is attached to a neutral stimulus by pairing it with a noxious unconditioned stimulus and (2) a person learns to escape the fear elicited by the conditioned stimulus, thereby avoiding the unconditioned stimulus
obsession
an intrusive and recurring thought that seems irrational and uncontrollable to the person experiencing it
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
an anxiety disorder in which the mind is flooded with persistent and uncontrollable thoughts or the individual is compelled to repeat certain acts again and again, causing significant distress and interference with everyday functioning
orbitofrontal cortex
the portion of the frontal lobe located just above the eyes; one of three closely related brain regions that are unusually active in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder
panic attack
a sudden attack of intense apprehension, terror and impending doom, accompanied by symptoms such as laboured breathing, nausea, chest pain, feelings of choking and smothering, heart palpitations, dizziness, sweating and trembling
panic disorder
an anxiety disorder in which the individual has sudden, inexplicable and frequent panic attacks
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
an extreme response to a severe stressor, including recurrent memories of the trauma, avoidance of associated stimuli, negative emotions and thoughts, and symptoms of increased arousal
prepared learning
in classical conditioning theory, a biological predisposition to associate particular stimuli readily with the unconditioned stimulus
safety behaviours
behaviours used to avoid experiencing anxiety in feared situations, such as the tendency of people with social phobia to avoid looking at other people (so as to avoid perceiving negative feedback) or the tendency of people with panic disorder to avoid exercise (so as to avoid somatic arousal that could trigger a panic attack)
serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
any of various drugs that inhibit the presynaptic reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine, such that both neurotransmitters will have more prolonged effects on postsynaptic neurons
social anxiety disorder (social phobia)
a collection of fears linked to the presence of other people
specific phobia
an unwarranted fear and avoidance of a specific object or circumstance, for example, fear of non-poisonous snakes or fear of heights
thought suppression
key feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder; has the paradoxical effect of inducing preoccupation with the object of thought
yedasentience
the subjective sense of knowing that one has achieved closure on an action or thought; theorised to be deficient among persons with obsessive-compulsive disorder
