Anxiety Disorders

Question 1

Anxiety

Answer 1

Chronic fear that persists in the absence of any direct threat—is a common psychological correlate of stress.

Question 2

Anxiety disorder

Answer 2

Anxiety is adaptive if it motivates effective coping behaviors; however, when it becomes so severe that it disrupts functioning, it is referred to as an anxiety disorder

Question 3

Anxiety disorders are associ­ated with…

Answer 3

• Feelings of anxiety (e.g., fear, worry)
• Variety of physiological stress reactions:
  - > tachycardia (rapid heartbeat),
  - > hypertension (high blood pres­sure),
  - > nausea,
  - > breathing difficulties,
  - > sleep disturbances, and
  - > high glucocorticoid levels

Question 4

Generalized anxiety disorder

Answer 4

Is characterized by stress responses and extreme feelings of anxiety and worry about a large number of different activities or events.

Question 5

Specific phobias

Answer 5

Strong fear or anxiety about particular objects or situations. A person with a pho­bia will usually try to avoid it.

Question 6

Agoraphobia

Answer 6

Pathological fear of public places and open spaces. Might be considered as a specific phobia, but it is generally considered to be more incapacitating than most specific phobias and is thus treated as a separate diagnostic category in the DSM­5.

Question 7

Panic disorder

Answer 7

Characterized by panic attacks. Such panic attacks also occur in certain cases of generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobia, and agoraphobia

Question 8

Panic attacks

Answer 8

Recurrent rapid­ onset attacks of extreme fear and severe symptoms of stress (e.g., choking, heart palpitations, shortness of breath).

Question 9

Etiology of anxiety disorders

Answer 9

• Anxiety disorders often triggered by identifi­able stressful events and anxiety is often focused on particular objects or situations, the role of experience in shaping the disorder is often apparent.
• Anxiety disorders have a significant genetic component—heritability esti­mates range from 30–50 percent.
• Concordance rates for various anxiety disorders are substantially higher for monozygotic twins than for dizygotic twins.
• No specific genes have yet been linked to anxiety disor­ders

Question 10

Benzodiazepines –> used in the treatment of anxiety disorders

Answer 10

• Chloordiazepoxide en diazepam
• Widely prescribed for the treatment of anxiety disorders.
• Also prescribed as hypnotics (sleep­inducing drugs), anticonvulsants(anti-epilepsy), and muscle relaxants.
• Several adverse side effects: sedation(verdoving), ataxia (disruption of motor activity), tremor(trillen/beven), nausea, and a withdrawal reaction that includes rebound anxiety, are also addictive.
• The behavioral effects of benzodiazepines are thought to be mediated by their agonistic action on GABAa receptors.

Question 11

Serotonin agonists –> used in the treatment of anxiety disorders

Answer 11

Buspirone –> Produces anxiolytic (antianxiety) effects without producing sedation, ataxia and muscle relaxation, the common side effects of the benzodiazepines. Buspirone does, however, have other side effects (e.g., dizziness, nausea, headache, and insomnia).

Question 12

Antidepressant drugs–> used in the treatment of anxiety disorders

Answer 12

• Comorbidity of anxiety disorders and clinical depression –> antide­pressants, such as SSRIs and SNRIs, are often effective against anxiety disorders, and anxiolytic drugs (antianxi­ety drugs) are often effective against clinical depression.
• Comorbidity of anxiety disorders and bipolar disorders –> atypical antipsychotics and anticonvulsants, some of which are effective mood stabilizers, are also effective treatments for certain anxiety disorders.

Question 13

Elevated-plus-maze test –> animal models of anxiety disorders

Answer 13

Rats are placed on a four­ armed plus­ sign­ shaped maze that rests about 50 centimeters above the floor. Two arms have walls and two arms have no walls, and the measure of anxiety is the pro­ portion of time the rats spend in the enclosed arms, rather than venturing onto the exposed arms.

Question 14

Defensive-burying test –> animal models of anxiety disorders

Answer 14

Rats are shocked by a wire ­wrapped wooden dowel mounted on the wall of a familiar test chamber. The measure of anxi­ety is the amount of time the rats spend spraying bedding material from the floor of the chamber at the source of the shock with forward thrusting movements of their head and forepaws.

Question 15

Risk-assessment test –> animal models of anxiety disorders

Answer 15

After a single brief expo­sure to a cat on the surface of a laboratory burrow(hol) system, rats flee to their burrows and freeze. Then, they engage in a variety of risk­ assessment behaviors (e.g., scanning the surface from the mouth of the burrow or exploring the surface in a cautious stretched posture) before their behav­ior eventually returns to normal. The measures of anxiety in this test are the amounts of time that the rats spend in freezing and in risk assessment.

Question 16

Neural bases of anxiety disorders

Answer 16

Prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala have been implicated in both depression and anxiety disorders, patterns of evidence differ.
Major depressive disorder –> atrophy (shrinkage) of these structures;
Anxiety disorders –> no significant atrophy.
Most of the evidence linking these structures to anxiety disorders has come from functional brain ­imaging studies in which atypical activity in these areas has been recorded during the performance of vari­ous emotional tasks