Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety Pattern of reactions to a perceived stress Females experience higher rate of anxiety disorders than males Anxiety disorders have high comorbidity rates Everyone experiences some form of anxiety, becomes disorder when the anxiety experienced is maladaptive

Common Anxiety Disorders Phobias Generalized Anxiety Disorder Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Panic Disorder Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Phobias Highly unreasonable and persistent fear of objects or situations Any exposure to phobic stimulus causes extreme anxiety DSM categorizes phobias into 5 types  Animal  Natural environments  Blood-injection-injury  Situational  Other

Phobias Continued… 1 out of 10 adults experience some type of phobia Most common phobia is a fear of snakes

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Generalized Anxiety Disorder is excessive worry for at least six months The anxiety is not specific to any one stimulus A person with the disorder will worry about virtually everything This disorder affects about 5% of the population

Panic Disorder Panic disorder is the intense sudden and discrete experiences of extreme fear Symptoms include: palpitations, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, etc. Attacks generally last min. and rarely go over 30 min Panic disorder affect 1-3% of population It is highly related to agoraphobia which is the fear of unprotected spaces People who suffer from panic disorder are in constant fear of having a panic attack so they avoid going out

PTSD Trauma is an outside event that would be extremely distressing to almost everyone  War, murder, torture, kidnapping, rape PTSD develops following a traumatic event Symptoms of PTSD include avoiding anything associated with the event Re-experiencing the traumatic event Increased arousal (being on guard) Symptoms usually decline over time

OCD It is a disorder involving obsessions, compulsions or both Individuals must realize that thoughts and behaviors are unreasonable but cannot stop for it to be OCD This disorder affects about 1% of the general population Common compulsions include, cleaning, grooming, checking and counting

Treatment Common treatments for Anxiety Disorders include: cognitive behavioral therapy, where maladaptive thought patterns are challenged, and healthy behaviors are learned And drug treatments Benzodiazepines are most commonly prescribed to suppress anxiety symptoms, but they are highly addictive