VC - Anxiety Flashcards
What are the biological pathways associated with Depression and Anxiety?
Depression: Mood pathway
Anxiety: Fear pathway
What is the definition focus for Depression vs. Anxiety?
Depression: Symptoms and duration of time are reported
Anxiety: Symptom classification and self-reporting
What brain pathways are involved in Depression and Anxiety?
Depression: Circuit level connectivity
Anxiety: Circuit level connectivity (including the amygdala)
What is the primary transmitter pathway associated with Depression and Anxiety?
Depression: Monoamines
Anxiety: GABA
What is the molecular target in the treatment of Depression and Anxiety?
Depression: Transmitter transporter
Anxiety: Inhibitory GABA receptor
What are the clinical confounds associated with treating Depression vs. Anxiety?
Depression: Side effects
Anxiety: Withdrawal and addiction
How is fear (4) distinguished from anxiety (3)?
Fear
* Physiological response
* Adaptive survival mechanism
* Context-appropriate
Anxiety
* Pathological
* Maladaptive response
* Context-inapproriate; responds to neutral/ambiguous cues
What is the physiological response in fear (5)?
- Hyper-arousal
- Increased heart rate
- Heightened sensory awareness
- Fight-or-flight response
- Enhanced metabolic readiness
What are the symptoms of anxiety as a pathophysiological state (6)?
- Increased heart rate
- Decreased salivation
- GI disturbances
- Hypervigilance
- Heightened startle response
- Autonomic symptoms
What are the similarities between fear and anxiety (5)?
- Both involve learning mechanisms and can be acquired through direct experience or observational learning.
- Each uses neuromodulatory pathways and involves cognitive processing.
- Both activate the autonomic nervous system, leading to physiological responses like increased heart rate and heightened alertness.
- Memory systems influence both, affecting how past experiences shape responses.
- Can lead to behavioral modification as individuals adapt or avoid perceived threats.
What are examples of anxiety disorders (9)?
- Panic attack,
- Agoraphobia
- Panic disorder
- Specific phobia
- Social phobia
- OCD
- PTSD
- Acute stress disorder
- Generalised anxiety disorder
What are animal models used in fear/anxiety research?
Fear Conditioning: Context and signal-based fear responses (e.g., freezing, heart rate measurement)
Purpose: To mimic human responses and assess fear circuits via contextual and sensory cues
Explain context conditioning in fear response.
Unsignaled Conditioning: An animal is placed in a blue box and receives an electric shock, causing a fear response. When placed in a different (purple) cage, no fear response occurs.
Signaled Conditioning: A bell rings right before an electric shock, creating an association between the sound and the shock. Later, even in a cage without shocks, the bell alone triggers a fear response.
How does the amygdala contribute to fear response (4)?
- Integrates information to create emotional response
- Links with hypothalamus, hippocampus, orbital cortex, etc
- Supports associative learning in fear circuitry
- There are both negative and positive modulations of the core fear centre
What roles do the Orbital cortex, Hippocampus, Central amygdala and Striatum play in fear and anxiety responses?
- Orbital Cortex: Involved in choice behavior and emotional memory
- Hippocampus: Responsible for learning and spatial memory
- Central Amygdala and Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis: Controls autonomic responses and attention
- Striatum: Associated with avoidance behavior
