Term
| acute stress disorder (ASD) |
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Definition
| a short-lived anxiety reaction to a traumatic event; if it lasts more than a month, it is diagnosed as posttraumatic stress disorder |
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Term
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Definition
| literally, fear of the marketplace. fear of being in crowded or open places. anxiety about situations in which it would be embarrassing or difficult to escape if panic sympoms occurred; most commonly disgnosed in some individuals with panic disorder |
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Definition
| in the subcortical region of the brain, the anterior portion of the cingulate gyrus, streching about the corpus callosum |
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Term
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Definition
| any drug that alleviates depression; also widely used to treat anxiety disorders |
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Term
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Definition
| an unpleasant feeling of fear and apprehension accompanied by increased psysiological arousal; in learning theory considered a drive that mediates between a threatening situation and avoidance behavior. anxiety can be assessed by self-report, by measuring physiological arousal, and by observing overt behavior |
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Term
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Definition
| disorders in which fear or tension is overriding and the primary disturbance; include phobic disorders, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute stress disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. these disorders form a major category in DSM-IV-TR |
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Term
| anxiety sensitivity index |
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Definition
| a test that measures the extent to which people respond fearfully to their bodily sensations; predicts the degree to which unexplained physiological arousal leads to panic attacks |
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Term
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Definition
| minor tranquilizers or benzodiazepines used to treat anxiety disorders |
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Term
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Definition
| the tendency to exhibit anxiety or to freeze when facing threat. in infants, it is manifest as a tendency to become agitated and cry when faced with novel stimuli and may be an heritable predisposition for the development of anxiety disorders |
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Term
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Definition
| any of several drugs commonly used to treat anxiety, such as valium and xanax |
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Term
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Definition
| any of numerous beta-adrenergic antagonists, competitive inhibitors of a class of receptors for the hormone adrenaline; are approved as cardiovascular drugs but often used to treat social phobia, despite a lack of demonstrated efficacy. |
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Term
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Definition
| the co-occurrence of two disorders, as when a person is both depressed and alcoholic |
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Term
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Definition
| the irresistible impulse to repeat an irrational act over and over again |
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Term
| critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) |
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Definition
| crisis intervention therapy of a single long session, offered within 72 hours of the traumatic event, and administered regardless of whether the person has developed PTSD symptoms; controversial and possibly even harmful instead of efficacious |
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Term
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Definition
| an alteration in perception of the self in which the individual loses a sense of reality and feels estranged from the self and perhaps separated from the body; may be a temporary reaction to stress and fatigue or part of panic disorder, depersonalization disorder, or schizophrenia |
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Term
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Definition
| loss of the sense that the surroundings are real; present in several psychological disorders, such as panic disorder, depersonalization disorder, and schizophrenia |
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Term
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Definition
| a process whereby a group of mental processes is split off from the main stream of consciousness, or behavior loses its relationship with the rest of the personality |
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Term
| exposure and ritual prevention (ERP) |
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Definition
| the most widely used and accepted treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which the sufferer is prevented from engaging in compulsive ritual activity and instead faces the anxiety provoked by the stimulus, leading eventually to extinction of the conditioned response (anxiety) |
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Term
| eye movement desensitization and reprocessing |
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Definition
| highly controversial therapeutic approach to trauma involving rapid oscillating eye movements along with classic imaginal exposure techniques; possibly efficacious, but no more so than cognitive or exposure therapies. |
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Term
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Definition
| a reaction to real or perceived immediate danger in the present; can involve arousal, or sympathetic nervous system activity |
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Term
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Definition
| set of brain structures, including the amygdala, that tend to be activated when the individual is feeling anxious or fearful; especially active among people with anxiety disorders |
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Term
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Definition
| a cognitive model for the etiology of agoraphobia; suggests the condition is driven by negative thoughts about the consequences of having a panic attack in public |
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Term
| generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) |
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Definition
| disorder characterized by anxiety so chronic, persistent, and pervasive that it seems free-floating. The individual is jittery and strained, distractible, and worried that something bad is about to happen. A pounding heart, fast pulse and breathing, sweating, flushing, muscle aches, a lump in the throat, and an upset gastrointestional tract are some of the bodily indications |
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Term
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Definition
| treatment for anxiety disorders that involves visualizing feared scenes for extended periods of time. Frequently used in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder, when in vivo exposure to the inital trauma cannot be conducted |
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Term
| interoceptive conditioning |
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Definition
| classical conditioning of panic attacks in response to internal bodily sensations of arousal (as opposed to the external situations that trigger anxiety) |
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Term
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Definition
| the brain region in the fear circuit that is especially important in panic disorder; the major source in the brain of norepinephrine, which helps trigger sympathetic nervous system activity |
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Term
| mowrer's two-factor model |
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Definition
| mowrer's theory of avoidance learning according to which (1) fear is attached to a neutral stimulus by pairing it with a noxious unconditioned stimulus, and (2) a person learns to escape the fear elicited by the conditioned stimulus, thereby avoiding the unconditioned stimulus |
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Term
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Definition
| old term for a large group of nonpsychotic disorders characterized by unrealistic anxiety, depression, and other associated problems |
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Term
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Definition
| the tendency to react to events with greater than average negative affect; a strong predictor of onset of anxiety disorders and depression |
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Term
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Definition
| memories based on connections between sensory stimuli and external events |
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Term
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Definition
| an intrusive and recurring thought that seems irrational and uncontrollable to the person experiencing it |
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Term
| obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) |
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Definition
| an anxiety disorder in which the mind is flooded with persistent and uncontrollable thoughts or the individual is compelled to repeat certain acts again and again, causing significant distress and interference with everyday functioning |
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Term
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Definition
| the portion of the frontal lobe located just above the eyes; one of three closely related brain regions that are unusually active in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder |
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Term
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Definition
| a sudden attack of intense apprehension, terror, and impending doom, accompanied by symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, chest pain, feelings of choking and smothering, heart palpitations, dizziness, sweating, and trembling |
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Term
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Definition
| a cognitive behavior treatment, based on the tendency of individuals with panic disorder to overreact to bodily stimuli, in which sensations are induced physically and coped with under safe conditions |
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Term
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Definition
| an anxiety disorder in which the individual has sudden, inexplicable, and frequent panic attacks; in DSM-IV-TR, diagnosed as with or without agoraphobia |
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Term
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Definition
| an anxiety disorder in which there is intense fear and avoidance of specific objects and situations, recognized as irrational by the individual |
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Term
| posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) |
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Definition
| an anxiety disorder in which a particularly stressful event, such as military combat, rape, or a natural disaster, brings in its aftermath intrusive reexperiencings of the trauma, a numbing of responsiveness to the outside world, estrangement from others, and a tendency to be easily startled, as well as nightmares, recurrent dreams, and otherwise disturbed sleep |
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Term
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Definition
| in classical conditioning theory, a biological predisposition to associate particular stimuli readily with the unconditioned stimulus |
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Term
| selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors |
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Definition
| any of various drugs that inhibit the presynaptic reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin, thereby prolonging its effects on postsynaptic neurons |
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Term
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Definition
| a collection of fears linked to the presence of other people |
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Term
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Definition
| an unwarranted fear and avoidance of a specific object or circumstance, for example, fear of nonpoisonous snakes or fear of heights |
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Term
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Definition
| symptoms of a disorder that are clinically significant but do not meet full diagnostic criteria |
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Term
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Definition
| key feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder; has the paradoxical effect of inducing preoccupation with the object of thought |
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Term
| tricyclic antidepressants |
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Definition
| a group of antidepressants with molecular structures characterized by three fused rings; interfere with reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin |
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