Notes about Anxiety Disorders

NOTES ABOUT ANXIETY DISORDERS
(Excerpts from NURSE’S NOTES: Reviewer’s Edition)

Maritess Manalang-Quinto, RN, MAN(c)
Nurse Educator/Nurse Instructor/Resource Speaker
Reviewer V for Local and International Nurse Licensure Examinations
Certified Foreign Graduate Nurse
Registered Nurse, Vermont State, USA
Registered Nurse, Republic of the Philippines


STRESS
• : is an inevitable part of a human’s life
• : causes wear and tear in the body, both physical and psychological
• : known to occur whenever a person has difficulty with life situations, experiences, problems and goals.

GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME by Hans Selye

3 Stages of reaction to stress:
1. Alarm reaction stage
• : Stress stimulates the bodily systems to send messages to the brain which serves as the body’s defense mechanism
• : The body tries to struggle and cope up with the stress felt by the individual
• : The individual is very much alert
• : Activation of sympathetic nervous system happens

2. Resistance stage
• : The bodily system adapts to stress felt; has the tendency to fight or flight.

3. Exhaustion stage
• : Happens when a person has negatively responded to stress such as inability to cope up with life situations and experiences

Anxiety
• :a vague feeling of dread, apprehension or death
• :an unexplainable response to external or internal stimuli that can have either behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms.
• :it is a feeling of apprehension caused by anticipation of danger.

Etiology
• Genetic
• Neurochemical
• Psychoanalytic
• Interpersonal

Levels of Anxiety
1. Mild Level of Anxiety +1
• -the individual will feel that something is different and warrants special attention.

2. Moderate level of anxiety +2
• -disturbing feeling of an individual indicating that something is definitely wrong and needs immediate attention
Levels of Anxiety
3. Severe Level of Anxiety +3
• -has trouble thinking and reasoning
• -crying with ritualistic behavior

4. Panic Level of Anxiety +4
• -perceptual field may be reduced to focus on self
• -may be suicidal

TYPES OF ANXIETY DISORDER
PANIC DISORDERS
• -composed of discrete episodes of panic attacks that is 15 to 30 minutes of rapid, intense, escalating anxiety in which the person experiences great emotional fear as well a physiologic discomfort.

TYPES OF ANXIETY DISORDER
PHOBIA
• -It is an illogical, irrational and an intense persistent fear of a specific object, a social situation or any stimuli that causes extreme distress which alters normal functioning and behavior.
3 Categories of Phobia
a. Agoraphobia
-fear of open spaces such as going out of the house and characterized by inability to keep up with appointments, doing activities outside the home or simply having attacks when leaving home.
b. Specific Phobia
• -Natural environmental phobia
(eg. natural disasters, floods, rain)
• Blood-injection phobia
(eg. surgical procedures, immunization)
• -Situational Phobia
(eg. speaking in front, singing, stage freight)
• -Animal phobia
(eg. snakes, spider, rats)
• c. Social Phobia
(eg. speech, stage freight)
Behavioral Therapy

Systematic desensitization

Flooding

TYPES OF ANXIETY DISORDER
OBSSESSIVE COMPLULSIVE DISORDERS
• Ritualistic Behaviors
• Touching Rituals
• Hoarding Rituals
• Counting Rituals
• Chanting/Praying Rituals
• Checking Rituals

Behavioral Therapy
• Exposure
• Response Prevention


TYPES OF ANXIETY DISORDER
GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER
• It is an anxiety disorder characterized by 6 months or more of excessive worrying and anxiety over an impulse or stimuli

TYPES OF ANXIETY DISORDER
ACUTE STRESS DISORDER
It is a disorder which occurs when the individual experiences dissociative symptoms during, or immediately after a distressing symptom or situation by using dissociation as common coping mechanism.

ANXIOLYTICS
BENZODIAZEPINES
NON-BENZODIAZEPINES

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