Week 9: Anxiety disorders Flashcards
What is anxiety?
Diffuse, highly unpleasant, often vague sense of apprehension or foreboding, according to changes in bodily responses and behaviour
When do we experience anxiety?
- situations that threaten our wellbeing
- can serve a protective function, preparing for escape and avoidance
When does anxiety become pathological?
When it is more frequent, more severe, or more persistent than one is accustomed to or can tolerate
How do anxiety disorders differ from each other?
in the types of objects or situations that induce anxiety
How do anxiety disorders differ from developmentally normative fear or anxiety?
- excessive
- persistent (typically 6 months or more)
- balancing force between reward and punishment, whereas fear is just forced on punishment/negatives
List the features of panic attacks
- often perceived as heart attacks
- feeling of terror or losing control
- expected or unexpected
- sudden and last several mins
- feel exhausted after
- usually begins in adolescence or early adulthood
What kind of situations can cue panic attacks later?
- driving a car
- entering a shopping centre
- travelling on a train
- thinking about needing to do anything involving a situation where a panic attack has previously occurred
Lifetime prevalence for panic disorder?
1.5-2%
Mean age of presentation for panic disorder?
25
Depression prevalence in panic disorder?
70%
What kind of situations are agoraphobic people fearful of?
- using public transport
- being in open spaces
- being in enclosed spaces
- standing in line or being in a crowd
- or being outside of the home alone in other situations
Why do agoraphobics avoid situations?
- escape might be difficult
- help might not be available if a panic attack occurs
Where does the word agoraphobia come from
Greek word for ‘fear of the marketplace’
Briefly describe generalised anxiety disorder
Persistent, diffuse, and excessive anxiety and worry about various domains, including work and school performance that the individual finds difficult to control
What kind of symptoms are in GAD?
- restlessness
- on edge
- easily fatigued
- difficulty concentrating
- mind going blank
- irritability
- muscle tension
- sleep disturbance
GAD prevalence?
2-5% of the population
Briefly describe specific phobia
Fear or anxiety about or avoidance of specific objects or situations that is persistent and out of proportion to the risk
What kind of situations make people with social anxiety anxious or fearful?
- meeting unfamiliar people
- being observed eating or drinking
- performing in front of others
How would you ideally start an anxiety assessment?
- frequency, intensity, duration and severity of symptoms
- impact on persons life
- impact on family
- what they are not doing because of it
What kind of tools assess anxiety
- clinical interviews
- standardised questionnaires
Name some clinical interviews for anxiety
- Anxiety disorders interview schedule for DSM-IV
- Structured clinical interview
Name some standardised questionnaires
- Beck depression anxiety
- State trait anxiety inventory
GAD assessment tools
- penn state worry questionnaire
- metacognition questionnaire
- intolerance of uncertainty questionnaire
What tools assess specific phobia
fear questionnaire
