LEC 4 - Anxiety Disorders

Question 1

Fear vs Anxiety

Answer 1

Fear: response to real and present danger
Anxiety: apprehension about anticipated events
- Physiological changes associated
- Not Merrily a biological response – people can experience it differently
- Difficulty controlling thoughts
- Halo effect: may influence how the person interpret things

Question 2

Benefits of Anxiety

Answer 2

Believe that without anxiety- us as a species, we’d be dead
- We need to be forward seeing and anticipating things

Question 3

Classification of Anxiety Disorders

Answer 3

Emerged in DSM3
Initially Part of neurosis
Now necessary for fear and worry to be disproportionate
- Clinician is now the one to make the call on that

Question 4

Splitting Movement

Answer 4

Taking disorders and chopping them up
Continue to make more finer groups
Allowing more precision
(Do these people have 3 different things or is it 3 labels of the same general things?)

Question 5

Rise of Interest in Anxiety

Answer 5

Freud’s emphasis on neurosis opened a new domain of human emotion: anxiety
- Believed that mental illness was rooted in the mind

Question 6

Panic Disorder

Answer 6

Recurrent, unexpected panic attacks
- depersonalization
- worry obsessively about another attack
- avoidance

Question 7

Specific Phobias

Answer 7

Persistent, excessive fear associated with a specific object or situation
This person always acts in a certain way with the stimulus
Daily life consumed on some level of avoidance, fear
- Agoraphobia (Fear of ability to escape situation)

Question 8

Social Anxiety Disorder

Answer 8

Anxious in social situation
Debate: why does it become unreasonable
- Most people have anxiety in social settings
Fear of being embarrassed in public
Culture Bound?? Americans valuing extroversion

Question 9

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Answer 9

“Chronic worriers”, distress/impairment in occupational or social functioning.
- Worry not fixed, may not even have clear source

Question 10

Key Issues with GAD

Answer 10

Lower diagnostic reliability.
Far more common in women (roles? stereotypes?)
Overlap: a distinct disorder or just a symptom?
If low key, is this really a distinct syndrome?

Question 11

Comorbidity (Anxiety)

Answer 11

50% of people that meet criteria for one anxiety disorder meet criteria for another.
- Anxiety and mood disorders, high degree of comorbidity (61% of people w/ MDD qualify for anxiety disorder).

Question 12

Diagnostic Growth (Anxiety)

Answer 12

Anxiety disorders at forefront of increase in prevalence of psychopathology
- Medicalization from ‘uncomfortable’ feelings into ‘ill’ ones
- Blurred lines between wellness and disturbance

Question 13

Women and Anxiety Disorders

Answer 13

women are diagnosed with anxiety disorders at a far greater rate than men
– Gender differences in seeking treatment?
– Biological?
– More likely to experience stressful life events?
– Social roles that are less fulfilling / more stressful.
– Diagnostic bias?

Question 14

Benzo Boom

Answer 14

Anxiolytics
– Work on immediate symptoms, but don’t alter thinking about future events.
– Often physiologically addictive, prompting withdrawal.

Question 15

Benzo Backlash

Answer 15

SSRIs branded as anti-depressants in1990s.
“Age of depression” replaces “age of anxiety”