PSYC 435 Abnormal Psychology Chapter 6
Anxiety Disorders Summarized Notes for
Exam Athabasca University
, lOMoAR cPSD| 42147428
Chapter 6
ANXIETY DISORDERS
➢ we’ve taken categories from DSM 4 and broken them into categories of DSM 5
➢ Hoarding disorder used to be a subtype of OCD, now it’s its own thing
o What is the best approach to treating anxiety disorders?
▪ Pills
▪ Skills
▪ Pills + Skills
▪ Anxiety Disorders are untreatable
o SKILLS is the best long-term outcome!
o Pills – benzodiazepines are prescribed for anxiety, they should only be prescribed that for the
short term
o Those have a high tendency for dependence, so people get addicted to them easily
o Then when you discontinue them, you get a rebound effect of lots of anxiety
o Skills are the best option for the long term. Anxiety patients actually respond really well to
psychotherapy.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
➢ Excessive, uncontrollable anxious apprehension and worry about life events
➢ Accompanied by strong, persistent anxiety
➢ Somatic symptoms differ from panic
o E.g., muscle tension, fatigue, irritability
➢ Persists for 6 months or more
Facts and statistics
➢ pas year prevalence is about 1% of the general population
➢ women outnumber men approximately 2:1
➢ onset is often insidious, beginning in early adulthood (creeps up on you over time)
➢ typically begins in early adulthood
➢ unlikely to remain symptom free
➢ older adults more susceptible
Less physiologically reactive (autonomic restrictors: they don’t really process the emotion-based of what
they’re presented. It’s not a CONSCIOUS avoidance of emotion, but there seems to be some inhibition of
emotion)
➢ cognitive characteristics:
o intolerance of uncertainty
o erroneous beliefs about worry
▪ by worrying about the problem, they are trying to solve the problem
▪ “if I worry about my family, it shows I care about them”
▪ if I worry about something bad happening, then it is less likely to happen
o poor problem orientation
▪ they have an idea that they shouldn’t HAVE problems
▪ their problem-solving skills are not that great
o cognitive avoidance
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
➢ integrated model of GAD
o psychological and biological vulnerabilities
o stress activates somatic tension and worry process
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