Test 2 Flashcards
When false symptoms are reported for the purpose of material or other explicit benefit
-Malingering
The reward associated with keeping internal conflicts out of conscious awareness
-Primary Gain
The reward associated with avoiding unpleasant activities or receiving sympathy
-Secondary Gain
Cultivating attention by paying attention on purpose on the present moment, nonjudgmentally
-Mindfulness
How a drug’s result is enhanced or otherwise altered when you take multiple substances
-Synergistic Effects
Resistance to a drug through continued use of another drug with similar pharmacological action
-Cross Tolerance
Drugs that block the effects of a substance to help reduce dependence on that substance
-Antagonist Drug
Feelings of discomfort, distress, and craving for a substance when use of the substance is stopped
-Withdrawal
The phenomenon where women experience negative effects of substance use more rapidly than men
-Telescoping
Systematic use of reinforcement in which a person is rewarded for adherence to treatment
-Contingency Management
The perspective that people abuse drugs because their brains are less capable of producing pleasure from normative reward behaviors, such as eating and sex
-Reward-Deficiency Syndrome
The perspective that a drug will stimulate neurobehavioral systems at a great intensity than in the past, providing increased pleasure from the use of the drug
-Incentive-Sensitization Theory
The phenomenon where a person perceives a lack of control over receiving reinforcements
-Learned Helplessness
The lack of pleasure or interest in doing life activities that is associated with severe depression
-Anhedonia
The communication of psychological distress through physical symptoms
-Somatization
General Anxiety - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- “Free-floating”anxiety
- Excessive anxiety & worry under most circumstances
- Difficult to control worry (a lot of disorders are going to be difficult to control)
- Significant distress (about 95% of disorders require distress)
- > 6 months (most disorders will have a time frame)
- 3 or more
- Restlessness
- Fatigue
- Difficulty concentrating
- Irritability
- Muscle tension
- Sleep disturbance
- 3 or more
- Usually begins in childhood or adolescence
- A mental disorder marked by constant worry about nondangerous situations and physical symptoms of tension
- GAD caused by stimulus generalization
- Responses to one stimulus are also elicited by similar stimuli (ex: in car accident, scared of cars (phobia), but then realize cars are everywhere; afraid now of trucks, buses, etc; start walking to school, but then you see at school that there are cars at school too, and you start to fear school; just get scared of generally everything
Probably don’t need to know?
- Poverty (less resources, fewer healthcare, less control, less ability to protect ourselves)
- Higher crime rates
- Fewer educational and job opportunities
- Greater risk for health problems
- Gender:
- 2:1 ratio, women
- Comorbidity, women: depression (women more likely to be comorbid with internal disorder)
- Comorbidity, men: substance abuse (men more likely to be comorbid with external disorder)
- 20% of Americans suffer from anxiety disorders, compared to 14.4% of Austrailians
- Why? Different lifestyles; why epidemiology is important
Specific Phobia - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Persistent and unreasonable fears of particular objects, activities, or situations
- Object almost always produces immediate anxiety
- Avoid the object or thoughts about it
- Fear is out of proportion to actual danger
- Causes clinical distress
- Most common: specific animals or insects, heights, enclosed spaces, thunderstorms, and blood
- A mental disorder marked by panic attacks surrounding, and avoidance of, objects and situations other than those involving social interaction and/or performance of others
What causes specific phobias?
- First onset triggered by
- Experiencing trauma (bad, life threatening experiences with these objects)
- Direct observation of trauma (watch it or see somebody go through it and get hurt by objects)
- Media coverage of trauma
- Panic attacks (attack so distressful and don’t want that to happen again, you avoid objects that were around you when you had attack)
- Conditioning & Modeling
- Once fears are acquired → avoid object → fear enhanced & maintained
- GAD caused by stimulus generalization
- Responses to one stimulus are also elicited by similar stimuli (ex: in car accident, scared of cars (phobia), but then realize cars are everywhere; afraid now of trucks, buses, etc; start walking to school, but then you see at school that there are cars at school too, and you start to fear school; just get scared of generally everything
-“Preparedness”: an evolutionary explanation (we’re afraid of things that can potentially kill us/hurt us; biologically, genetically prepared to be afraid of certain things because they were dangerous in the past, they survived because of fear and avoidance of snakes; passed down to you; ex: grandma and grandpa afraid of snakes, avoided them, and survived to have kids, while other couple didn’t make it because not afraid and died by getting close to one)
Social Anxiety - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Fear about one or more social situations person is exposed to (person develops idea that something is wrong with them, like feeling unpopular, go into social encounter thinking that, heart rate goes up, sweating, go to encounter person/people, everyone is noticing everything that’s wrong with them, sweating even more, and after, think of all indicators that people were finding everything wrong with them, and this creates a horrible model for the next time)
- Fear you will show anxiety & be judged in social situations
- Social situations avoided or endured
- Fear out of proportion to threat
- > 6 months
- Clinical distress
- Often kept secret, highly disruptive
- 3:2, women; Poverty: 50% more likely
- Often begins in childhood
- Child: More fear, specific situations
- Adult: Less fear, broad situations
- Help by giving anti-anxiety medication and social skills training to help (need both, either one alone is not very helpful)
- A mental disorder marked by panic attacks in, and avoidance of, situations involving performance before others or possible negative evaluation
Agoraphobia - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Fear about 2 or more:
- Public transportation
- Open spaces
- Enclosed places
- Standing in line or crowd
- Begin outside of home alone
- Situations provoke fear
- Feared situations are avoided
- Fear is out of proportion to actual danger
- 6 months or more
- Clinically significant distress
- 2:1, women
- Usually begins late adolescence
- Often associated w/ Panic DO (fear of going back into specific environment)
- A mental disorder marked by avoidance of places in which one might have an embarrassing or intense panic
- Treatment
- Behavioral → Similar to Specific Phobias
- Drug Therapy → Similar to Panic Attacks
Panic - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
-Abrupt surge of intense fear
- 4 or more, e.g., (experienced intensely in the body; can look like a heart attack, stroke)
- Palpitations, pounding heart
- Sweating
- Trembling
- Shortness of breath, smothering
- Feelings of choking
- Chest pain
- Nausea
- Feeling dizzy, faint
- Chills, or heat
- Feeling loss of control or going crazy
- Fear of dying
- 1 month or more of one or both:
- Persistent worry about additional attacks or their consequences (worry)
- Maladaptive change in behavior due to attacks (avoidant behavior) (ex: somebody who went to their romantic partner’s parents’ house, has panic attack while there, and now, that person refuses to go back to partner’s parents’ house; can also be in places like work, which is really bad)
- 2:1, women
- Poverty → 50% more likely
- Usually begins late adolescence
- Only 1 of 3 seek treatment
- A mental disorder marked by ongoing and uncued panic attacks, worry about the consequences of these attacks, and, sometimes, agoraphobia
Obsessive Compulsive - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Obsessions
- Persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are intrusive (ex: thinking cousin is going to get killed, die if I don’t keep my house very clean by vacuuming 12 times a day) (impulsive thought?)
- Compulsions
- Repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed by rules (this is behavioral; repeated, ritualistic behaviors; set of behaviors done in specific order that helps reduce distress)
- Time consuming ( > 1 hour / day) or cause clinical distress
-Begins in adolescence / young adulthood, gradually worsens (7, 8, or 9, and slowly gets worse)
- Specify:
- With good or fair insight (understand something is wrong with cousin example)
- With poor insight (actually think your obsession is true with cousin example)
- With absent insight/delusional beliefs (psychotic belief that is not real in world)
- 1:1 gender
- Men > forbidden thoughts & order
- Women > cleaning
- Panic attacks and Suicidal thoughts common
- A mental disorder marked by ongoing obsessions and compulsions lasting more than 1 hour per day (obsessive-compulsive personality disorder = personality disorder marked by rigidity, perfectionism, and strong need for control)
Observations
- Take various forms
- Wishes
- Impulses
- Images
- Ideas
- Doubts
- Dirt/contamination
- Sexuality
- Violence
- Orderliness
- Religion
Compulsions
- Performing behaviors reduces anxiety
- ONLY FOR A SHORT TIME!
- Develop into rituals
- Cleaning
- Checking
- Order
- Counting, touching
- According to psychiatric perspective, doing cocaine vs. washing hands are different because they have different neurochemical response) (compulsion reduces cortisol, removing stress, while drugs add positive sensations, so not the same)
- OCD cycle: repetitive, unwanted, intrusive thoughts are actually NORMAL
- But, see them as dangerous
- Attempt to “neutralize”thoughts w/ actions
- People with OCD:
- High standards of conduct and morality
- Believe thoughts = to actions & can harm (people with OCD think things and view it equivalent to engaging in behavior)
- Ex: person feels happy and relieved when called down for dinner, they turn light switch off, but associate their happiness and relief with turning switch off, rather than being called down for dinner
Hoarding - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Persistent difficulty parting w/possessions, regardless of value
- Results in accumulation of possessions that congest and clutter active living areas
- People with money have even more possessions; they buy extra houses and hoard in there
- Specify
- With good or fair insight
- With poor insight
- With absent insight/delusional beliefs (insight = understand something is wrong; delusional = you think something bad will actually happen if you don’t do it)
- Begins middle adolescence, young adulthood
- Severity increases with age
- Inconsistent gender findings
- 3 of 4 comorbid with depression or anxiety
- Animal hoarding is worse! They create their own waste, have value, difficult to care for
- Poor Executive Control (executive functioning is very important; depending on level of executive control people develop as children can affect doing well in school, relationships, success; people with hoarding have poor external control)
- Diminished nonverbal attention
- Distract more easily (ex: to do well in class, have to focus, study, and know you have to avoid doing things you actually want to do for some time; hoarders have difficult time)
- Greater variability in reaction time
- Greater impulsivity (hoarders struggle with impulse control)
- Poor memory
- Poor decision making
- Abnormal Frontal Lobe functioning
- Orbitofrontal Cortex (overactivity)
- Ventromedial PFC
- Anterior cingulate cortex
Body Dysmorphic - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Preoccupation w/ one or more perceived defects in physical appearance (why not weight? Because when we find something wrong with weight, we express it through eating differently, and brain is affected)
- Repetitive behaviors/mental acts in response to appearance concerns
- Clinical distress
- Specify:
- With good or fair insight
- With poor insight
- With absent insight/delusional beliefs
- Begins young to middle adolescence
- > abuse, bullied, as child
- 1:1, gender
- High rates of suicide and depression
- There are common things that become obsessed: nose, wrinkles, hair, skin discoloration, bloating
- What do they do? Look in mirror, feel faces/body routinely with hands, excessive time spent grooming, skin-picking, doing different cosmetic things
- A disorder marked by excessive preoccupation with some perceived body flaw
- Overactive Left Hemisphere
- Attention to details amplified
- Family Environment
- Emphasize perfection & imperfections (family pushes for beauty, and it can trigger/make it worse)
-Direction of Cause Problem (can go both ways; it can be that your born with it, but it’s also possible that environment has caused it; different for different people)
- Left Half of Brain: (activated when looking at super detailed face)
- Logical
- Realistic
- Objective
- Analytic
- Right Half of Brain: (activated when looking at non-detailed face)
- Creative
- Emotional
- Intuitive
- Imagination
-This tells us that they really do see something, because brain activity isn’t changing, it’s just they see something we don’t, which makes it worse
Somatic Symptom DO - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
-One or more somatic symptoms that distress or disrupt daily life
- Excessive thoughts, feelings, or behavior related to the somatic symptoms
- Disproportionate / persistent thoughts about symptoms
- Persistent high level of anxiety about symptoms
- Excessive time and energy devoted to symptoms
-> 6 months
- Functional versus Presenting
- Under diagnosed in elderly
- People with depression tend to somatize
-Somatic - feel something; a pain is there; illness - cognitive! No actual physical pain; actually feels a pain; illness anxiety: just worried about having something; leg might hurt one day, the other leg next day
Shared with Conversion DO:
- Somatization
- Communicating distress through physical symptoms
- Somatic Symptom & Related DOs
- Struggle that appears biological → actually psychosocially caused (ex: back hurts, goes to doctor and they find nothing, so the pain is not physically caused)
- And/Or, struggle that is excessive given biological cause (could have some organic dysfunction) (ex: walking to class, stub toe, unable to walk to class, and miss class; doctor says no real problem, just bruising, but he says he hasn’t been able to walk)
- DO NOT consciously want or purposely produce symptoms; it’s an unconscious response to stress
- Suffer actual changes in physical functioning
- Can be undetected organic cause
-Psychophysiological disorders - real thing going on with body, and are affected by stress (things like high blood pressure) (STOPS SHARING WITH CONVERSION DO)
- Communication of Distress through the Body
- Learn Illness beliefs → physical (not psychological) explanations of struggle
- Somatosensory awareness
- More attention devoted to body
- Mind-body Connection
- A mental disorder in which a person experiences physical symptoms that may or may not have a discoverable physical cause, as well as distress
Illness Anxiety DO - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Preoccupation with having or acquiring a serious illness
- Somatic (body) symptoms are not present
- High level of anxiety about health
- Excessive health-related behaviors or maladaptive avoidance
- Illness preoccupation > 6 months
- Specify
- Care-seeking type (can cause “boy who cried wolf” when something is actually wrong)
- Care-avoidant type (think something is so wrong, that going to doctor will confirm fear, which would be unbearable, and this causes same problem; person won’t get treated when something is actually wrong)
- Somatic: actually feels a pain; illness anxiety: just worried about having something; leg might hurt one day, the other leg next day
- A somatic symptom disorder marked by excessive preoccupation with fear of having a disease
Conversion - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Functional Symptom DO
- One or more symptoms of altered voluntary motor or sensory function (motor = can’t move arm or leg; senses = blind, can’t hear, can’t feel touch)
- No evidence of neurological / medical cause
- Clinical distress
- Example: Glove Anesthesia (person will come in saying they lost feeling in one or both hands; suspicious because there are three main nerves in arm, and people usually only experience damage with one nerve (in pinky or in forefingers), not in whole arm)
- Appears Suddenly (often)
- Associated with
- Childhood abuse
- High suggestibility (personality characteristic about how likely you are to go along with other people; gullible)
- La Belle Indifference (unconsciously knowing that they can still see, so they are less freaked out
- Motor ability:
- Difficulty walking
- Difficulty swallowing
- Fainting
- Convulsions
- Senses:
- Blindness
- Deafness
- Loss of touch
-A somatic symptom disorder marked by odd pseudoneurological symptoms that have no discoverable medical cause
Shared with Somatic Symptom DO:
- Somatization
- Communicating distress through physical symptoms
- Somatic Symptom & Related DOs
- Struggle that appears biological → actually psychosocially caused (ex: back hurts, goes to doctor and they find nothing, so the pain is not physically caused)
- And/Or, struggle that is excessive given biological cause (could have some organic dysfunction) (ex: walking to class, stub toe, unable to walk to class, and miss class; doctor says no real problem, just bruising, but he says he hasn’t been able to walk)
- DO NOT consciously want or purposely produce symptoms; it’s an unconscious response to stress
- Suffer actual changes in physical functioning
- Can be undetected organic cause
-Psychophysiological disorders - real thing going on with body, and are affected by stress (things like high blood pressure) for
Factitious - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Falsification of physical or psychological signs or symptoms, or induction of injury or disease, associated with identified deception
- Presents to others as ill, impaired, or injured
-Deception is obvious even without external rewards present (sometimes for psychosocial benefits)
- Subtype: Malingering
- Symptoms reported for personal gain
- Money, time off work, escape punishment
- Symptoms reported for personal gain
-A mental disorder marked by deliberate production of physical or psychological symptoms to assume the sick role
Factitious Imposed on Another - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Munchausen Syndrome by proxy
- Refers to adults who deliberately induce illness or pain into a child and then present the child for medical care
- Parent is usually the perpetrator and often denies knowing the origin of the child’s problem
- Child generally improves once separated from parent
- Most victims are younger than 4 years old, and most perpetrators are mothers
- A main motive = attention and sympathy the parent receives from others
- Falsification of physical or psychological signs or symptoms, or induction of injury or disease, in another, associated with identified deception
- The individual presents another individual (victim) to others as ill, impaired, or injured
- The deceptive behavior is evident even in the absence of obvious external rewards
- The behavior is not better explained by another mental disorder, such as delusional disorder or another psychotic disorder
- Note: The perpetrator, not the victim, received this diagnosis
- Specify if there is a single episode or recurrent episodes of falsification of illness and/or induction of injury
- Used to be called “factitious disorder by proxy”
Major Depression - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Begins puberty, peaks in late 20’s when often diagnosed
- 2:1, women
- 80% recover in a year
- Recurrence common
- Comorbidity
- Substance Use
- OCD
- Eating DO’s
- Borderline Personality DO
- 5 or more in 2-week period, a change from previous functioning
- Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day
- Diminished interest or pleasure in all or almost all activities
- Significant weight loss, or decrease or increase in appetite
- Insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
- Psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day
- Fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt
- Diminished ability to think or concentrate nearly every day (can interfere with work, relationships, school work)
- Recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation
- Significant distress
- A mental disorder often marked by multiple major depressive episodes
Many Varieties of Major Depressive DO
- Specify
- Mild
- Moderate
- Severe
- With psychotic features
- In partial remission
- In full remission
- Unspecified
- Specify
- W/ anxious distress
- W/ mixed features
- W/ melancholic features
- W/ atypical features
- W/ mood-congruent psychotic features
- W/ mood-incongruent psychotic features
- W/ catatonia (body becomes rigid and can’t move)
- W/ peripartum onset (during pregnancy)
- W/ seasonal pattern (fall/winter - when it gets bad)
Persistent Depression - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Dysthymia
- -Depressed mood for most of day, for at least 2 years
- 2 or more
- Poor appetite or overeating
- Insomnia or hypersomnia
- Low energy or fatigue
- Low self-esteem
- Poor concentration or difficulty making decisions
- Feelings of hopelessness
- Clinical distress
- A depressive disorder involving a chronic feeling of depression for at least 2 years
- Specify
- Early onset (< 21)
- Late onset
- Specify
- Mild
- Moderate
- Severe
- Comorbidity
- Substance use
- Personality disorders
Bipolar I - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Full manic episodes alternate w/ major depressive episodes
- Most common form of Bipolar DO
- 3:1 (more depressive episodes)
- 1:1 gender
- High suicide risk
- A mental disorder marked by one or more manic episodes
Bipolar Disorder in General:
- A full manic episode - For at least one week - In extreme cases, symptoms are psychotic
-Less severe symptoms → Hypomanic episode
- Mania: five areas of functioning affected
- Emotional symptoms
- Active, powerful emotions
- Motivational symptoms
- Need for constant excitement, involvement, companionship
- Behavioral symptoms
- Very active –move quickly; talk loudly or rapidly
- Cognitive symptoms
- Show poor judgment or planning
- Physical symptoms
- High energy level –w/ little rest
- Emotional symptoms
Bipolar II - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Hypomanic episodes alternate w/ major depressive episodes (not full-blown mania like in Bipolar I)
- A mental disorder marked by episodes of hypomania that alternate with episodes of major depression
Bipolar Disorder in General:
- A full manic episode
- For at least one week
- In extreme cases, symptoms are psychotic
-Less severe symptoms → Hypomanic episode
- Mania: five areas of functioning affected
- Emotional symptoms
- Active, powerful emotions
- Motivational symptoms
- Need for constant excitement, involvement, companionship
- Behavioral symptoms
- Very active –move quickly; talk loudly or rapidly
- Cognitive symptoms
- Show poor judgment or planning
- Physical symptoms
- High energy level –w/ little rest
- Emotional symptoms
Cyclothymic - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
- Hypomanic episodes alternate w/ mild depressive symptoms
- For two or more years, with periods of normal mood
- May become Bipolar I or II disorder
- Rapid cycling
- 4+ episodes in 1-year period
- Seasonal
- A mental disorder marked by fluctuating symptoms of hypomania and depression for at least 2 years
Bulimia - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
-An eating disorder marked by binge eating, inappropriate methods to prevent weight gain, and self-evaluation greatly influenced by body shape and weight
- Recurrent binge eating
- Eating (w/in 2 hours) more than most would or could eat
- Lack of control over eating (what, or how much)
- Recurrent compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain
- Purging Type
- Self-induced vomiting
- Laxatives
- Diuretics
- Non Purging Type
- Fasting
- Excessive exercise
- Purging Type
- Occurs 1/week for 3 months
- Over Self-evaluation of body shape & weight
- Specify
- Mild: 1-3 / week
- Moderate: 4-7 / week
- Severe: 8-13 / week
- Extreme: 14 / week
-10 : 1, women
Bulimia Nervosa: Binges
- Common to experiment with
- Binge habits often carried out in secret
- Preceded by tension / powerlessness
- Massive amounts of food
- 1,000 -10,000 calories
- Very rapidly àlittle chewing
- Sweet, high-calorie foods with soft texture
- Often very pleasurable
- Followed by
- Self-blame
- Guilt & depression
- Fear of weight gain
Bulimia Nervosa: Compensatory Behaviors
- Compensatory behaviors to “undo” calories
- (1) Vomiting
- Only prevents half the calories
- Affects ability to feel satiated
- Greater hunger & bingeing
- (2) Laxatives and Diuretics
- Mostly fails to reduce calories absorbed
- (1) More other-oriented Experience & Concerns
- (2) Less w/ amenorrhea
- (3) Lower frustration tolerance
- (4) Poorer coping skills
- (1) Vomiting
Anorexia - Identify and Distinguish Symptom Presentation Gist
-An eating disorder marked by refusal to maintain a minimum, normal body weight, intense fear of gaining weight, and disturbance in perception of body shape and weight
- Core Symptoms
- Refusal to maintain > 85% of normal weight
- Intense fear of becoming overweight
- Distorted view of weight & shape
- Specify
- Mild, Moderate, Severe, Extreme
- Specify
- Restricting Type
- Dieting, fasting, excessive exercise
- Binge-eating/Purging Type
- Vomiting & laxatives
- Bulimia vs. Anorexia Nervosa → difference is in weight, not in binging and purging
- Restricting Type
- Begins mid to late adolescence
- 10 : 1, women
- Goal: become thin
- Motive: fear
- Giving in to desire to eat & becoming obese
- Losing control of body size & shape
- Preoccupied with food
- Reading about food & planning meals
- The “typical”case:
- Normal to slightly overweight woman dieting
- Stressful event
- Separation of parents
- Move away from home
- Experience of personal failure
- Most recover (somewhat) now
- ~ 5% die
- Medical complications, suicide risk very high
- Motive: fear
- Associated with (comorbid with):
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Low self-esteem
- Insomnia or other sleep disturbances
- Substance abuse
- Obsessive-compulsive patterns
- Perfectionism
- Everything in body is going to wear down and create dysfunction
- Distorted body image thinking
- Low opinion of body shape
- Overestimate actual proportions
- Adjustable lens assessment technique
- Maladaptive attitudes & misperceptions
- “I must be perfect in every way”
- “I will be a better person if I deprive myself”
- “I can avoid guilt by not eating
How does Roger’s humanistic perspective understand the cause and treatment of anxiety?
-Lack of “unconditional positive regard” in childhood leads to “conditions of worth” → I am good IF I do or don’t do “x”
- The less overlap between self-image and ideal-self = bad
- Self-image is different to ideal self
- Here self-actualization will be difficult
- More overlap between self-image and ideal-self = good
- Self-image is similar to ideal self
- This person can self-actualize
- Person-Centered Approach (growth promoting climate) - triangular shape
- Congruence (authenticity and realness) at top
- Unconditional positive regard (non-judgemental respect) to right
- Empathy (process of understanding) to left
How are the Amygdala and GABA associated with anxiety.
- Amygdala:
- Anxiety response
- Septal-hippocampal system
- Memory association triggers anxiety
- In normal fear reactions:
- Key neurons fire → excitability
- Brain then tries to reduce excitability
- GABA released to inhibit neuron firing
- Gad linked to:
- Too few GABA receptors
- Ineffective GABA receptors
- Benzodiazepines (valium, xanax) enhance GABA – increase GABA to reduce cortisol (anxiety)
What is the most common antianxiety drug? How does it work? What is its biggest side effect?
- Benzodiazepines (late 1950)
- Provide temporary, modest relief
- Rebound anxiety with withdrawal and cessation of use
- Physical dependence is possible
- Mix badly with certain other drugs (especially alcohol)
- Biggest side-effect - drowsiness, sleepiness
- Early 1950s = barbiturates (hypnotics)
- More recently = antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs
