anxiety disorder
News •
-
What is an anxiety disorder?
An anxiety disorder is a mental health condition marked by intense, persistent, and excessive anxiety, differing from normal fear because it lacks clear justification or is disproportionate to the situation. It significantly interferes with daily functioning and can manifest as panic attacks, phobias, or generalized anxiety.
Symptoms include emotional distress, worry, and physical signs like palpitations and sweating. Treatment includes therapy and medication; however, stigma can prevent people from seeking help.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How is an anxiety disorder different from normal feelings of anxiety?
Normal anxiety is an adaptive response to real-life stresses, differing from anxiety disorders, which arise without clear justification or are disproportionate to the situation.
Anxiety disorders involve persistent, intense, or chronic anxiety that disrupts daily life. Unlike normal anxiety, which is temporary and manageable, anxiety disorders can manifest as insomnia, irritability, agitation, and physical symptoms like heart palpitations and rapid breathing, even in situations most people handle with ease.
These disorders include panic disorder, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, each with distinct characteristics and triggers.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What are some common types of anxiety disorders?
Anxiety disorders are a class of mental disorders where anxiety is the primary symptom. Common types include:
-
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) GAD is marked by chronic, excessive worry that is difficult to control and causes distress or impairment in daily functioning.
-
Panic Disorder This disorder is characterized by sudden attacks of terrifying anxiety with symptoms like heart palpitations and sweating.
-
Phobias These involve extreme, irrational fears of specific objects or situations. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a type of phobia characterized by a fear of interacting with people due to worries about being negatively judged.
-
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) OCD is characterized by persistent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive, ritualized behaviors (compulsions) to reduce anxiety.
-
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) PTSD involves persistent symptoms following exposure to an intensely negative event, such as re-experiencing the event and emotional numbing.
6 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
-
What symptoms might someone with an anxiety disorder experience?
Anxiety disorders show symptoms across emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and psychophysiological dimensions.
- Emotional and cognitive: Feelings of dread and apprehension, on top of irritability, worry, poor concentration, and restlessness.
- Behavioral: Avoidance behavior.
- Psychophysiological: Palpitations, dry mouth, dilated pupils, shortness of breath, sweating, abdominal pain, throat tightness, trembling, and dizziness.
Different anxiety disorders manifest differently. For instance, panic disorder brings sudden attacks of terrifying anxiety, social phobia involves fear of social situations, and obsessive-compulsive disorder features persistent, unwanted thoughts that cause distress.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What causes or risk factors can lead to anxiety disorders?
Anxiety disorders can stem from a mix of genetic predispositions, brain biochemistry, and life stressors. No single cause explains all cases; the same disorder may arise from biochemical imbalances, emotional conflicts, or faulty learning.
Anxiety may also be rooted in frightening events, where the anxiety becomes linked to associated circumstances, or from appraising stimuli as threatening.
Family and twin studies reveal genetic links in schizophrenia, mood disorders, and some anxiety disorders. Children with a parent who has schizophrenia are 10 times more likely to develop it. Behavioral theories suggest that anxiety symptoms, like phobias, are learned responses. Avoiding the feared object reinforces this behavior, maintaining the anxiety.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How are anxiety disorders treated or managed?
Anxiety disorders can be addressed through psychotherapy and/or medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps correct negative thoughts and reduce anxiety in fearful situations using techniques such as cognitive restructuring, behavioral experiments, and exposure.
Medications for anxiety include anti-anxiety drugs and benzodiazepines like alprazolam (Xanax). Other options include azaspirodecanediones (like buspirone). Relaxation-based strategies such as meditation, breathing retraining, and muscle relaxation can also be helpful.
5 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
anxiety disorder, any of several disorders that are characterized by a feeling of fear, dread, or apprehension that arises without a clear or appropriate cause. Anxiety normally is an adaptive mechanism that signals a potentially harmful internal or external change and thereby enables individuals to avoid harm or to cope with stress. When anxiety occurs for seemingly no reason or in an exaggerated manner in response to relatively innocuous stimuli and disrupts a person’s life, an anxiety disorder may be diagnosed.
Anxiety disorders are some of the most-common psychiatric disorders in the world. However, despite effective treatments, many affected individuals are not diagnosed or treated adequately. Anxiety disorders often are chronic and disabling conditions associated with enormous emotional and monetary costs.
Common anxiety disorders
Generalized anxiety disorder
People with generalized anxiety disorder have persistent worry and anxiety symptoms for at least a six-month period. The condition affects women more than men, with the average age of onset being about 30 years. It tends to run a chronic course. Generalized anxiety disorder often is accompanied by other conditions, such as depression, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and substance abuse. Certain indices of disability in generalized anxiety disorder, particularly role impairment, are comparable in severity to those of major depressive disorder. The concurrent presence of depression or other conditions in generalized anxiety disorder increases not only the person’s burden of disability but also the economic costs (due to absenteeism, increased health care use, and hospitalizations) associated with the disorder.
" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by the presence of repetitive, highly intrusive, anxiety-provoking thoughts, impulses, or images known as obsessions. In about 80 percent of cases, obsessions lead to mental and motor compulsions (repetitive ritualized thoughts or acts) to reduce the anxiety. People with OCD may spend several hours each day engaged in compulsions, to the exclusion of normal life activities. OCD usually manifests in children or young adults, tends to run a chronic waxing-and-waning course, and is associated with significant disability in many life areas. Many OCD patients report low self-esteem, tend to seek help very late, and have high rates of major depression during their lifetime. People with severe OCD may have serious impairments in social functioning and may be financially dependent on others.
Panic disorder
Panic disorder is characterized by sudden, sometimes spontaneous attacks of terrifying anxiety accompanied by symptoms such as the experience of terror, heart palpitations, and sweating. Fear of the attacks themselves generates a pattern of avoidance that can severely constrict the person’s life. During attacks, fear that the symptoms may signal a heart attack, stroke, or other medical problem leads to repeated emergency room visits and expensive workups. People with panic disorder tend to use medical care more frequently than people without the condition. The degree to which patients with panic disorder are impaired may be influenced by various factors, such as age, education, panic disorder diagnosis, or the presence of another psychiatric condition (specifically, major depression).
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Persons who experience life-threatening trauma (e.g., sexual abuse, combat, natural disasters) may be affected by recurrent intrusive thoughts and dreams of the traumatic event, abnormally increased alertness and anxiety, and emotional numbing as well as avoidance of situations that remind them of their trauma. These symptoms are characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is a very common condition that tends to run a chronic course. It often is associated with other anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse. Patients may be irritable and angry, which can lead to difficulty in interpersonal relationships.
Veterans with war-related PTSD have high rates of health complaints, medical conditions, and health care use. Similar impairments of subjective distress, poor physical and emotional health, and impaired social and role functioning are experienced by nonveteran PTSD patients (e.g., rape victims). PTSD often co-occurs with chronic pain and other medical conditions (such as HIV) and is associated with intensified pain, greater disability, and worse medical outcomes. PTSD is associated with an elevated suicide rate.
The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.
SUBSCRIBE
Social anxiety disorder and specific phobias
Social anxiety disorder typically develops in adolescence, is more common in women, and usually runs a chronic course. Symptoms may include a fear of strangers, a fear of humiliation or of being judged by others, and an avoidance of social situations where attention centres on the individual. When confronted with these situations, the individual may experience blushing, diarrhea, elevated heart rate, nausea, sweating, or trembling. Social anxiety disorder often is accompanied by depression and an increased risk of alcohol abuse. Patients with subthreshold symptoms of social anxiety disorder can suffer from significant disability, potentially increasing concurrent depression.
Specific phobias involve irrational fear that is focused on a particular entity (e.g., dogs) or situation (e.g., driving through a tunnel). Symptoms of anticipatory anxiety, distress when in the presence of the feared object or situation, and active avoidance of triggering situations are characteristic of individuals with specific phobias.
Treatment of anxiety disorders
There are several treatment options for anxiety disorders, including cognitive behavioral therapy and medications such as anti-anxiety, benzodiazepine drugs like alprazolam (Xanax). However, the shame, fear, and stigma that often accompany diagnoses cause many patients to avoid seeking care in the first place. Other obstacles to treatment may include failure of the health system to detect an anxiety disorder. Even when treated, many patients are left with residual symptoms and disability. However, there is clear evidence that both effective psychotherapeutic and medical treatment can improve personal and occupational functioning, raise quality of life, and reduce unnecessary medical use costs for most anxiety disorder cases. In addition, specifically targeting functional gains rather than only symptom reduction with treatments has been proposed as a means of greatly improving functional outcomes for persons with anxiety disorders. Routine use of simple validated rating scales can objectively document functional impairment, aid in evaluating the true efficacy of treatments, and assist patients in their application for disability benefits or appropriate workplace accommodations.