Week 4: Anxiety Disroders

Question 1

What are the similarities between anxiety disorders?

Answer 1

• characterised by unrealistic, irrational fears or anxieties that cause significant distress and/or impairments in functioning
• differ in the amount of fear/panic vs anxiety symptoms, and focus of the concern
• high comorbidity between anxiety disorders with depression
• activation of the limbic system (amygdala)
• neurotransmitters: GABA, norepinephrine, serotonin
• common genetic vulnerability, temperament, stressors int he environment, learnt response to stimuli, cognitions

Question 2

What are phobic disorders?

Answer 2

Specific phobia, social anxiety, agoraphobia

Question 3

What are specific phobias characterised by?

Answer 3

• irrational fear of specific object/situation
• leads to distress or impairment to functioning
• panic response to feared stimuli
• disproportionate reaction
• anxiety in anticipation
• avoidance

Question 4

What is social anxiety disorder characterised by?

Answer 4

• fear of scrutiny of others
• fear of negative evaluation
• embarrassment or humiliation in social situations
• avoidance
• anxiety disrupts day-to-day functioning

Question 5

What is panic disorder characterised by?

Answer 5

• panic attacks (brief but intense)
• occur seemingly ‘out of the blue’
• recurrent, unexpected attacks and persistently concerned about having another attac or worried about he consequences of an attack
• significant maladaptive change in behaviour related to attacks
• mostly physical symptoms

Question 6

What is agoraphobia characterised by?

Answer 6

• fear and avoid places or situations that might cause people to panic and feel trapped, helpless or embarrasses
• can develop from a panic attack in a certain situation
• comorbid with panic disorder

Question 7

What are the maintenance factors of anxiety disorders?

Answer 7

• avoidance: behaviour is rewarded due to positive outcome
• punishment: behaviour is ‘punished’ due to negative outcome
• escape: behaviour is rewarded due to positive outcome

Question 8

What are the general treatments across anxiety disorders?

Answer 8

• graduated exposure to fears cues, objects, and situations
• cognitive restructuring techniques: challenging automatic thoughts
• medication: anti anxiety medications and antidepressants

Question 9

What are the sociocultural differences in anxiety disorders?

Answer 9

• social: gender expectations (more socially acceptable for women to exhibit fear)
• symptom expression (ataque de nervios: anger, uncontrollable screaming or shouting, crying, trembling)
• focus of anxiety