KEY WORDS ANXIETY AND FEAR DISORDERS COM

Question 1

What is Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)?

Answer 1

• A type of anxiety disorder.
• Characterised by excessive, uncontrollable worry about various aspects of life.
• That lasts for at least 6 months.
• Symptoms can cause significant distress or impairments to functioning.

Question 2

What is the GAD 7?

Answer 2

• A 7-item screening tool used to assess the severity of GAD.
• It is typically used in a primary care setting, to enable further referral to a psychiatrist or councellor.

Question 3

Definition- anxiety

Answer 3

• Nervousness or fear about an anticipated future event.

Question 4

Fear- definition?

Answer 4

• Basic, intense emotion aroused by the detection of an imminent threat.

Question 5

What is agorophobia?

Answer 5

• A type of anxiety disorder
• Characterised by intense fear of situations where escape may be difficult or help may NOT be unavailble (e.g open, crowded spaces.

Question 6

What is a phobia?

Answer 6

• Intense, irrational fear of specific objects, places or situations.

Question 7

What is Blood-Injection-Injury phobia? (BIIP)

Answer 7

• Persistent fear when confronted with blood, injection or injuries.
• Often leading to nausea, or fainting.

Question 8

What is the Blood-Injection Phobia Invetory (BIPI)?

Answer 8

• An 18-item self-report measure used to assess the severity of fear related to blood, injection and injuries.

Question 9

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 9

• Learning through association.

Question 10

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 10

• Learning through consequences.

Question 11

What is CBT?

Answer 11

• a psychotherapy that helps individuals identify and change negative thoughts and behaviors to improve emotional well-being.

Question 12

What is Systematic Desensitization?

Answer 12

• Gradual exposure to a feared stimulus while practicing relaxation to reduce anxiety.

Question 13

What is counter-conditioning?

Answer 13

• Replacing an unwanted response with a positive one
  How? by associating a stimulus with a different outcome.

Sarah, who fears dogs, uses counterconditioning by practicing relaxation techniques whenever she encounters a dog, gradually learning to associate dogs with calmness rather than fear. Over time, her anxiety fades as she forms a new, positive association.

Question 14

What is recipocral inhibition?

Answer 14

• The process where one response inhibits another (e.g., relaxation reduces anxiety).

Question 15

What is a anxiety-hierarchy?

Answer 15

• A list of anxiety-provoking situations relating to the specific phobia that increase in severity.

Question 16

What is the preparedness theory (Seligman,1971)

Answer 16

• A theory that suggests humans are biologically predisposed to fear certain stimuli
• As these fears had survival value in our evolutionary past

Question 17

What is the 5-HTTLPR (Serotonin Transporter Gene)?

Answer 17

Associated with increased sensitivity to stress and higher anxiety levels.

Question 18

What is the COMT gene?

Answer 18

• Influences dopamine metabolism and may play a role in anxiety and decision-making under stress.

Question 19

What is the 2 process model of phobias (Mower)?

Answer 19

*Phobias develop through classical conditioning and are maintained through operant conditioning.

classical conditioning (learning to associate a neutral stimulus with fear)
operant conditioning (avoiding the feared stimulus, which reduces anxiety and reinforces the fear).

Question 20

What is ‘in vitro’?

Answer 20

• patient imagines being exposed to the feared stimulus

Question 21

What is ‘in vivo’?

Answer 21

• patient is exposed to the fear- actual exposure