Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Related Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
Fear: innate, adaptive response to immediate
danger/threat in environment
Prepares for fight or flight (sympathetic nervous
system)
Need parasympathetic system to calm down
Anxiety: innate, adaptive response to anticipation of
danger/threat, more diffuse than fear
Feared stimulus/event is vague, not identifiable, or in
the future
Anxiety Disorders
Natural anxiety/fear response becomes inappropriate
& dysfunctional
Diagnostic Criteria for Specific Phobia
A. Marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation
B. Exposure to phobic stimulus almost always provokes an immediate anxiety
response
C. Phobic situation avoided or endured with intense anxiety or distress
D. The fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger posed by the
specific object or situation and to the sociocultural context.
E. Fear or anxiety is persistent typically lasting for 6 months or more.
F. Fear must interfere significantly with persons life, or they are markedly
stressed by the fear.
G. Not better accounted for by another condition/disorder
Subtypes:
Animal Type (e.g., dogs, spiders, horses, etc.)
Natural Environment Type (e.g., heights, storms, water, etc.)
Blood-Injection-Injury Type
Situational Type (e.g., airplanes, elevators, enclosed places)
Other Type (e.g., in children: loud sounds, costumed characters, clowns)
Specific Phobia
Developmental Influences
Anxious, overprotective and critical parents
Temperament behaviorally inhibited
Treatment of Social Phobia
Biological
Psychodynamic
Panic Attack
An abrupt surge of intense fear or discomfort
that reaches a peak w/i minutes
Attacks include at least 4 of the following:
Anxiety Sensitivity
Theories of Panic Disorder
Perception of Control
Attachment theory
Anxiety associated with insecure attachment
Diathesis-Stress
Treatment for Panic Disorder
Antidepressant Medications