Download Anxiety Disorders

Chapters 12 and13
Psychological Disorders
Defining Psychological
Disorders

Mental processes and/or behavior
patterns that cause emotional distress
and/or substantial impairment in
functioning
Insanity
A person is not legally responsible
for his or her acts due to their
mental condition.
Classifying Psychological
Disorders
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The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) provides a
system for diagnosing and classifying
psychological disorders
It describes about 300 specific disorders and
organizes them into categories
NEVER SHOWS CAUSE!!!
Anxiety Disorders
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Characterized by frequent fearful thoughts
about what might happen in the future
Most common category of psychological
disorders
Anxiety Disorders

Generalized anxiety disorder
– Disorder involving overwhelming, chronic,
excessive worry for six months or more.
Continuous state of sympathetic nervous system
activity.
Anxiety Disorders
Panic attack
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An episode of overwhelming anxiety, fear, or terror
Brains of panic-attack sufferers respond to normal
changes in the body as if they were life threatening
Panic disorder
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Disorder in which a person experiences recurring,
unpredictable episodes of overwhelming anxiety,
fear, or terror
Phobias
Phobia: a persistent, irrational fear of some
object, situation, or activity that poses little
or no real danger
3 subtypes
Agoraphobia
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Intense fear of being in a situation from which
escape is not possible if one experiences
overwhelming anxiety or a panic attack
Often begins with repeated panic attacks
People sometimes plan their entire lives around
avoiding feared situations
Phobias

Social anxiety disorder: fear and
avoidance of any social or performance
situation in which one might embarrass or
humiliate oneself in front of others
Common Anxiety Disorders
cont…
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Specific phobia is a fear of a specific
object or situation, a general label for any
phobia other than agoraphobia or social
phobia (catchall category)
Treatment: Behavior Modification
Techniques Based on Learning
Theories
Systematic desensitization -- based on
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classical conditioning; used to treat fears
Trained to relax while being confronted with
a hierarchy of fears.
Eventually, client can stay relaxed while
confronting even the most feared situation
Behavior Modification Techniques
Based on Learning Theories cont…
Flooding also based on classical
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conditioning
Client is exposed to the feared object or
event for an extended period
Until their anxiety decreases
Biological Treatments

Antianxiety drugs
– Benzodiazepines are effective for treating
generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder
– Valium, Xanax
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Block reuptake of GABA
– Addictive, drug tolerance and withdrawal, sedating
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Antidepressants (work on Serotonin)
– Paxil, Zoloft
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

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Disorder in which a person suffers from
recurrent obsessions and/or compulsions
Obsession
– persistent, involuntary thought, image, or
impulse that causes great distress

Compulsion
– persistent, irresistible, and irrational urge to
perform an act or ritual repeatedly
– often involve cleaning and washing, counting,
checking, touching objects, hoarding, or
excessive organizing
Mood Disorders

Disorders characterized by extreme and
unwarranted disturbances in emotion or
mood
Depression
mania
Major Depressive Disorder
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marked by feelings of great sadness,
despair, and hopelessness as well as loss of
the ability to feel pleasure (anhedonia)
Symptoms also include:
– Changes in appetite, weight, and sleep
patterns
– Difficulty thinking or concentrating
Cognitive Therapies
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Therapies that assume maladaptive
behavior can result from irrational,
automatic thoughts, beliefs, and ideas
Helps clients stop their negative
thoughts as they occur and replace
them with more objective thoughts
Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis
Rational Emotive Therapy
A-activating event
 B-belief
 C-consequences

What needs to change?
Figure 13.1 The ABCs of Rational
Emotive Therapy
Drug Therapy
Antidepressant drugs
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Act as mood elevators for people who are
severely depressed
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
(SSRIs) Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft
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Block the reuptake of serotonin, increasing
its availability at the synapses of the brain
Selective serotonin norepinephrine
reuptake inhibitors (SSNRIs) (Effexor,
Pristiq, Cymbalta)
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
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Electric current is administered to the
right cerebral hemisphere
– Patient is under anesthesia
– Usually reserved for severely depressed
patients who are suicidal
ECT was misused and overused in the 1940s
and 1950s, leading to a bad reputation
Can be a highly effective treatment for major
depression
Bipolar Disorder
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A mood disorder in which manic episodes
alternate with periods of depression, usually
with relatively normal periods in between
Manic episodes are periods of excessive
euphoria, inflated self-esteem (grandiosity),
wild optimism, pressured speech, flight of ideas
and hyperactivity, often accompanied by
hostility if activity is blocked
Biological Treatments
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Lithium
– Reduces both manic and depressive
episodes
– Treatment dose and toxic dose similar
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Anticonvulsant Medications
– Depakot
– Tegratol
 Mechanism unknown
Risk Factors for Mood Disorders
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A small area in the prefrontal cortex, that
plays a role in controlling emotions, is
smaller than normal in people with major
depression
Abnormal levels of serotonin and
norepinephrine are strongly linked to
depression
What are some risk factors for
mood disorders?
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Prevalence rates differ between men and
women
In most countries, rate of depression in
females is about twice that for males
Suicide rates differ: ♀ 3x more likely to
attempt; ♂ 4x more likely to complete
Schizophrenia

A severe psychological disorder
characterized by loss of contact with reality,
hallucinations, delusions, inappropriate or
flat affect, some disturbance in thinking,
social withdrawal, and/or other bizarre
behavior
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Positive symptoms are abnormal
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behaviors that are present in people with
schizophrenia
Hallucinations
Delusions (of grandeur or of persecution)
Disorganized behavior
Inappropriate affect
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
cont…
Negative symptoms are a loss or
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deficiency in thought or behavior that is
characteristic of normal functioning
Social withdrawal
Apathy
Loss of motivation
Flat affect
– Limited speech and slow movements
– Poor hygiene and grooming
Explaining Schizophrenia
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There is probably no single cause of
schizophrenia
Instead, several factors interact to produce
schizophrenia, including:
– Constitutional vulnerability
– Stress
– Neuromaturational processes
Explaining Schizophrenia
cont…
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Constitutional vulnerability refers to the
aspects of an individual’s congenital risk of
developing schizophrenia that are
attributable to two factors:
Gender – Males are more likely than
females to develop schizophrenia
Heredity – Chances of developing
schizophrenia are higher if one has a close
genetic relative with schizophrenia
Explaining Schizophrenia
cont…
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Stress
– Stressful events may trigger development of
schizophrenia in individuals with constitutional
vulnerability
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Neuromaturational processes
– Environmental factors may disrupt normal brain
development
– Causing decreased frontal lobe functioning,
destruction of gray matter, and abnormal
dopamine activity
Figure 12.6 Destruction of Gray Matter in the
Brains of Adolescents Diagnosed with
Schizophrenia
Drug Therapy
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Antipsychotic drugs
– Prescribed primarily for schizophrenia
– Used to treat symptoms such as hallucinations,
delusions, and disorganized behavior
– Work by inhibiting dopamine activity