Chapter 5: Anxiety Disorders Flashcards
Anxiety
The central nervous system’s physiological and emotional response to a vague sense of threat or danger
Anxiety and the role of the Sympathetic Nervous System
An overactive sympathetic nervous system leads to anxiety. As long as there is a perceived threat, the gas pedal stays pressed down, releasing cortisol to keep the body revved, a feeling often called on edge, or anxious
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
A disorder marked by persistent and excessive feelings of anxiety and worry about numerous events and activities
GAD & the Sociocultural Perpective
Interpretations: societal dangers, economic stress, or related racial and cultural pressures may create a climate in which cases of generalized anxiety disorder are more likely to develop
Treatments: ________
GAD & Psychodynamic Perspective (Freud)
Interpretations: may develop when anxiety is excessive and defense mechanisms break down and function poorly
Treatments: therapists use free association, interpretation, and related psychodynamic techniques to help people overcome this problem
GAD & Humanistic Perspective (Carl Rogers)
Interpretations: believed that people with GAD fail to receive unconditional positive regard from significant others during their childhood and so become overly critical of themselves
Treatments: treated individuals with client-centered therapy (clinicians try to help clients by being accepting, empathizing accurately, and conveying genuineness, A.K.A. person-centered therapy)
GAD & Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective
Interpretations: believed that GAD is caused by various maladaptive assumptions and/or inaccurate beliefs about the power and value of worrying
Treatments: help clients change their maladaptive thinking and/or dysfunctional uses of worrying = rational-emotive therapy
GAD & Biological Perspective
Interpretations: hold that GAD results from a hyperactive fear circuit - a brain circuit consisting of several brain structures (prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and amygdala).
Treatments: treat with drugs, antidepressant drugs, benzodiazepines, and antipsychotic drugs
Phobia
A persistent and unreasonable fear of a particular object, activity, or situation
Specific Phobias
A severe and persistent fear of a specific object or situation
Agoraphobia
An anxiety disorder in which a person is afraid to be in public situations from which escape might be difficult or help unavailable if panic-like or embarrassing symptoms were to occur
Panic Disorder & Biological Perspective
Interpretations: believe that it is caused by a hyperactive panic circuit, a brain circuit that includes structures such as the amygdala, hippocampus, ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus, central gray matter, and locus coeruleus.
Treatments: use certain antidepressant drugs or benzodiazepines
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
A severe and persistent fear of social or performance situations in which embarrassment may occur
Panic Disorder
- An anxiety disorder marked by recurrent and unpredictable panic attacks
- Panic Attacks: Periodic, short bouts of panic that occur suddenly, reach a peak within minutes, and gradually
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- A disorder in which a person has recurrent obsessions, compulsions, or both
- Obsession: A persistent thought, idea, impulse, or image that is experienced repeatedly, feels intrusive, and causes anxiety
- Compulsion: A repetitive and rigid behavior or mental act that a person feels driven to perform in order to prevent or reduce anxiety
OCD & Psychodynamic Perspective
Interpretations: OCD disorders arises out of a battle between id impulses and ego defense mechanisms
Treatments: Therapists try to help the individuals uncover and overcome their underlying conflicts and defenses, using the customary techniques of free association and therapist interpretation
OCD & Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective
Interpretations: believe that the disorder grows from a normal human tendency to have unwanted and unpleasant thoughts. The efforts of some people to understand, eliminate, or avoid such thoughts actually lead to obsessions and compulsions.
Treatments: educate clients and help them correct their misinterpretations of unwanted thoughts. with such gains in hand, the therapists then conduct exposure and response prevention. Neutralizing, a person’s attempt to eliminate unwanted thoughts by thinking or behaving in ways that put matters right internally, making up for the unacceptable thoughts
Benzodiazepines
The most common group of antianxiety drugs, which includes Valium and Xanax
Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA)
A neurotransmitter whose low activity in the brain’s fear circuit has been linked to anxiety
Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) in Anxiety
To counteract this state of fear, some neurons throughout the brain release the neurotransmitter GABA, which then binds to GABA receptors on certain neurons and instructs those neurons to stop firing. The state of excitability ceases, and the experience of fear and anxiety subsides
GABA is one of the important neurotransmitters at work in their circuit (particularly in the amygdala), so low GABA activity could indeed help produce circuit hyperactivity and, as initially suggested, lead to the development of GAD
Sedative-Hypnotic Drugs
Drugs that calm people at lower doses and help them to fall asleep at higher doses
Modeling
A process of learning in which a person observes and then imitates others. Also, a therapy based on the same principle
Exposure Treatments
Treatments in which persons are exposed to the objects or situations they dread
Systematic Desensitization
An exposure treatment that uses relaxation training and a fear hierarchy to help clients with phobias react calmly to the objects or situations they dread
