Abnormal psy Flashcards
exam 2
Biological perspective for Generalized anxiety disorder
~Everyday fear reaction are tied to brain circuits
~Fear circuit: prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula and amygdala
~Fear circuit hyperactivity may be tied to development of generalized anxiety disorder
~Neurotransmitters: low levels of GABA
cognitive behavioral perspective for social anxiety disorder
~Perspective: interplay between both cognitive AND behavioral factors
~Dysfunctional beliefs and expectations about social interactions
~Unrealistically high social standards and perfectionism
~Avoidance and safety behaviors performed to reduce or prevent these disasters
treatment for social anxiety disorder
~Exposure therapy: treatment in which persons are exposed to the objects or situations they dread
~Graded exposure: pace of treatment; construct fear hierarchy where feared stimuli are ranked according to difficulty
cognitive behavioral perspective for panic disorder
~Biological factors are only part of the cause of panic attacks
~Bodily sensations are misinterpreted (cognitions) as signs of medical catastrophe and artificially controlled by avoidance and safety behaviors
~Anxiety sensitivity may exist: excessive focus on bodily sensations are unable to assess the sensations logically and interpret them as potentially harmful
treatment for panic disorder
~Educate about nature of panic attacks
~Use cognitive restructuring to challenge inaccurate interpretations
~Graded interoceptive exposure therapy: exposure to internal bodily sensations
Agoraphobia
~Pronounced, disproportionate or repeated fear about being in at least 2 delineated situations ~Duration 6 months
~Derives from concern that it would be hard to escape or get help if panic, embarrassment or disassembling symptoms were to occur
~Avoidance of agoraphobic situations
~Significant distress or impairment
cognitive behavioral perspective for OCD
~Perspective: those who develop OCD blame themselves for these normal intrusive thoughts and expect that terrible things will happen as a result
~Features: thoughts that feel both intrusive and foreign, attempts to ignore or resist them trigger anxiety
treatment for OCD
~Treatment: focus on the cognitive processes that help to produce and maintain obsessive thoughts and compulsive acts
~Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) exposes a client to anxiety-arousing thoughts or situations and then prevents the client from performing their compulsive acts
~Between 50-70 percent improve with therapy
stress and arousal
set into motion by the hypothalamus which activates two important system that prepare our body to respond to danger
1. ANS
2. Endocrine system
acute stress disorder
ear and related symptoms begin soon after trauma and last for less than one month
PTSD
fear and related symptoms experienced either shortly after the trauma or months or years afterward; 25% of people with PTSD do not develop full clinical syndrome until 6 months or more after their trauma
treatment for PTSD
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (focus on exposure)
Exposure based treatment is the best intervention for people with PTSD
dissociative amnesia
~a person cannot recall important life-related information, typically traumatic or stressful information; the memory problem is more than simple forgetting; often directly triggered by a specific upsetting event
~Leads to significant distress or impairment
~Symptoms are not caused by a substance or medical condition
what are the 2 types of dissociative amnesia?
~Localized: more common, loss of all memory of events occurring with a limited period
~Selective: loss of memory for some , but not all, events occurring within a period
dissociative fugue
people not only forget their personal identities and details of their past, but also flee to an entirely different location
Ex. hannah upp
depersonalization
feeling separation from own body, awareness that perception are distorted
Derealization Disorder
feeling external world/reality is unreal and strange
unipolar depression
depression without history of mania
what are the stats for unipolar depression
Stats: 8% of U.S. adults suffer from unipolar depression, 20% (1 of 5) experience at one point in their lives; 85% recover within 6 months w/o treatment
what are the symptoms of unipolar depression ?
Emotional Symptoms: Sadness, anhedonia (little pleasure) and anger
Motivational syndrome: lacking drive, initiative, and spontaneity
Between 6-15% people with depression commit suicide
Behavioral symtoms: less active, social withdrawal, slower movement of speech
Cognitive symptoms: hold negative view of themselves, blame themselves for unfortunate events, pessimistic
Physical symptoms: headaches, dizzy spells, indigestion, constipation, sleep disturbances, fatigue
unipolar depression criteria
For a 2 week period, person displays an increase in depressed mood for the majority of each day and/or a decrease in enjoyment or interest across most activities for the majority of each day
For the same 2 weeks, person also experiences at least 3 or 4 of the following symptoms: weight change, appetite change, insomina, hypersomnia, daily agitation, decrease in motor activity, daily fatigue or lethargy, feelings of worthlessness, excessive guilt, reduction in concentration, repeated focus on death or suicide
Significant distress or impairment
biological perspective for unipolar depression
Biochemical factors: low activity of serotonin and norepinephrine
Glutamate: responsible for stimulating neurons and promoting connectivity and communication among neurons
Lower levels of glutamate in depression
Drug Therapy : 2nd Gen Antidepressants (mechanism of SSRIs)
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that increase serotonin activity without affecting other transmitters
cognitive behavioral perspective for unipolar depression
Beck: unipolar depression is produced by a combination of maladaptive attitudes, cognitive triad, errors in thinking and automatic thoughts
Watkins and colleagues: ruminative responses during depressed moods are linked to: longer feelings of dejection and increased likelihood of later life clinical depression
cognitive behavioral treatment for unipolar depression
behavioral activation: reintroduction to pleasurable events/activities
cognitive therapy (beck):
Phase 1: increasing activities and elevating mood
Phase 2: challenging automatic thought
Phase 3: identifying negative thinking and biases
Phase 4: changing primary attitudes
