PSYB32H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Dysthymia, Startle Response, Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing
Document Summary
As a class, anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental illness. Dsm-iv-tr lists seven principal diagnoses: specific phobia, social phobia, panic disorder (with and without agoraphobia), generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and acute stress disorder. Anxiety is common to all the anxiety disorders, but phobias and panic also involve fear as a clinical feature. Phobias are intense, unreasonable fears that interfere with functionality. Social phobia is fear of unknown people or social scrutiny. Specific phobias include fears of animals, heights, enclosed spaces, and blood, injury, or injections. A patient with panic disorder has recurrent, inexplicable attacks of intense fear. Panic attacks alone are not sufficient for the diagnosis; a person must be worried about the potential of having another attack. Panic attacks sometimes lead to fear and avoidance of being in places where escape would be difficult if another attack were to occur, known as agoraphobia.
