Week 4 Flashcards
(40 cards)
What is fear ?
The emotion we experience in response to concrete danger
What is anxiety ?
Complex feelings of uneasiness to possible impending threats
How are fear and anxiety linked ?
Both are related to the FoF response
What are anxiety disorders linked to ?
- Exposure to a truamatic event increases risk of developing an anxiety disorder
- Anxiety disorder may also be secondary to a chronic illness
- If anxiety is excessive and disabling and there is lack of a physical cause, a person may be diagnosed with an axiety disorder
What are the types of anxiety disorders ?
- GAD
- Panic Disorder
- Phobic Disorder
What disorders fall under Trauma and Stressor-Related disorders ?
- OCD
- PTSD
What is GAD ?
- Excessive uncontrollable and unrealistic anxiety and worry
- Common co-morbidity with depression
- Women over men; Onset often begins in childhood or adolesence
What is Panic disorder ?
- Characterized by repeated and unexpected panic attacks, typically accompanied by worry about future attacks
- Symptoms are similar to those of a heart attack
- Panicked person has intense fear; anxiety sensitivity; interoceptive sensitivity (awareness to what’s going on in the body)
What are phobias ?
An unreasonable or excessive fear of an object, situation, or activity
What are the 3 broad catgories of phobias ?
- Agoraphobia
- Social phobia
- Specific phobias
What is agoraphobia?
fearful of a public palce or being outside of the home to the extent that a panic attack or extreme embarassment is possible
What is Social phobia ?
a fear of social activity, especially of being scrutinized and embarassed
What are specific phobias ?
exaggerated fear of specific objects/situations not covered by the other two
How does anxiety look like in the brain ?
- Increased activation of amygdala and decreased activation of prefrontal cortex (PFC) while viewing negative stimuli
- The ability of the PFC to inhibit activation of amygdala is not present in personas with anxiety disorder
- High levels of anxiety correlate with increased activation of the amygdala and **decreased ventral anteriros cingulate cortex (vACC) activation
What are obsessions ?
Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive, unwanted, and that in most individuals cause marked anxiety or distress
What are compulsions ?
Ritualistic repetitive behaviours or mental acts that are designed to neutralize anxiety and negative affect
What occurs in OCD ?
- Decreased inhibitory control, evidence by increased impulsivity and compulsivity
- Impariment in goal-directed behaviour leading to overreliance on maladaptive, habitual behaviours and contributing to the formation of compulsions
How does OCD affect the brain ?
- Dysregulation of the cortico-basal-ganglia-thalamo-cortical (CBGTC) loop conceptualized in symptom provacation
- Hyperactivity of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) results in overestimation of threat and creates a disbalance b/w habit formation and goal-directed networks (impaired goal-directed behaviour)
What is the relationship b/w stress and OCD ?
- 25-67% of OCD patients report significant life events in relation to the onset of their OCD
- exposure to traumatic events in childhood are 5-9x more likely to meet criteria for OCD in adulthood
- high school and middle school students who reported stressful life events were 21% more likely to go on to meet the criteria for OCD 12 months later
What can excessive stress cause in relation to OCD ?
- Result in atrophy (shrinkage) of the frontal cortices and caudaute nucleus, which impairs goal-directed behaviours
- Executive dysfunction is key factor in OCD (rather than emotion dysregulation)
What is the relationship b/w anxiety and PTSD ?
Reaction to traumatic stressors that results in
* Reliving the event - flashbacks, reactivity to reminders, nightmares
* Avoidance - emotional numbing, detached, repression
* Arousal - poor concentration, exaggerated stratle, hyperbigilance, irritable
What emotions are included in PTSD ?
PTSD includes emotions of guilt, shame and anger, moving beyond the fear/anxiety specturm
What did the Web-based epidemiological study find ?
- 2 months after 9/11, persons living in closer proximity to the WTC were more likely to report PTSD symptoms
- Prevalence of probably PTSD was higher in NYC metropolitan area than the rest of the country
How does PTSD affect the brain ?
- Increased activation of amygdala and decreased activaation of PFC to fearful faces
- Atrophy of hippocampus
