PSYC1011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Sertraline, Panic Disorder, Natural Environment
Anxiety
A negative mood state characterised by bodily symptoms of physical tension and apprehension about the
future
• Closely related to fear
o Present danger
o Future danger - danger that may happen in the future
• Fight or flight response
o Sympathetic nervous system
o Increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, sweating, hyperventilation, goose bumps, going
pale]
o
Difference between normal anxiety and an anxiety disorder
• Quantitative not qualitative
o Intensity
o Duration
o Appropriateness of response
• Functional impairment and distress
•
Anxiety disorders
• Prevalence
▪ Lifetime prevalence: 20%
▪ Point prevalence: 10% (current levels, 10% of population currently have anxiety)
▪ Similar prevalence to MDD
o Highly comorbid to major depressive disorder
o Twice as common in females
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• Types of anxiety disorders
o Panic disorder
▪ Afraid of bodily sensations
o Specific phobia
▪ Afraid of specific object, event, situation
o Social anxiety disorder
▪ Social performance related, embarrassment/humiliation
o Obsessive-compulsive disorder
▪ Afraid of their own thoughts and what it implies about them
▪ Technically not an anxiety disorder
• Shares features with anxiety
• What do these disorders have in common?
o Associated with:
▪ Excessive fear
▪ Overestimation of threat
o Causes significant distress or functional impairment
o To reduce anxiety, sufferers typically:
▪ Avoid fear - inducing stimuli/situations/thoughts
▪ Engage in safety behaviours
• E.g. having a drink before public speaking
• Avoidance prevents the fear extinguishing, thus anxiety is maintained
• Negative reinforcement
o Panic attacks
▪ Are a symptom
▪ Very common in anxiety disorders
• Abrupt experience of intense fear
• Physical 'fight-or-flight' symptoms
• Shortness of breath
• Pain in chest
• Distress
▪ Can be cued or uncued
▪ Symptoms
• Increased heart rate
• Sweating
• Derealisation, depersonalisation
• Fear of losing control or going crazy
• Trembling, shaking
• Feeling short of breath
• Feelings of choking
• Chest pain or discomfort
• Fear of dying
• Identical to a fight/flight response
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Document Summary
A negative mood state characterised by bodily symptoms of physical tension and apprehension about the future: closely related to fear, present danger, future danger - danger that may happen in the future. Fight or flight response: sympathetic nervous system. Increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, sweating, hyperventilation, goose bumps, going pale] Difference between normal anxiety and an anxiety disorder: quantitative not qualitative. Social performance related, embarrassment/humiliation: obsessive-compulsive disorder, afraid of their own thoughts and what it implies about them, technically not an anxiety disorder. Shortness of breath: pain in chest, distress, can be cued or uncued, symptoms. Fear of losing control or going crazy: derealisation, depersonalisation, trembling, shaking, chest pain or discomfort. Irrational fear of a specific object or situation. Interferes with an individual"s ability to function: exposure to feared object provokes intense anxiety response, common phobias, animal: snakes, spiders, birds, natural environment: heights, storms, water. Situational: planes, elevators, enclosed places: blood-injury-injection: blood, needles, other: vomiting, clowns.
