2101 - Anxiety Disorders/Cognitive Models of Panic Disorders

What are the 3 components of anxiety and their characteristics ?

• Emotional Response → Anxiety < Fear < Panic

• Physiological Response → Autonomic nervous system activation

• Cognitive Response → Attentional reorienting & narrowing / Worry / Avoidance

What are the shared features of anxiety disorders ?

1) Neurobiological - Hypoconnectivity of the interconnected affective salience network and cognitive control network

2) Cognitive - Fear generalisation, attentional bias, interpretation bias
3) Behavioural - Avoidance, Safety behaviours

What is the two stage model of specific phobias ?

1) Acquired by classical conditioning

2) Maintained by operant conditioning (negative reinforcement)

Treatment for specific phobias

1) Exposure therapy

2) Cognitive therapy

Diagnostic criteria for panic attacks

Abrupt surge of intense fear that reaches peak within minutes, and during which at least 4 DSM symptoms are present.

Diagnostic criteria for agoraphobia

Marked fear about 2+ of the following

1) Public transport

2) Open spaces

3) Closed spaces

4) In line/crowd

5) Outside home

What are the biological models of panic disorders ?

1) False-suffocation alarm hypothesis

2) Dysfunction in fear network - Amygdala / Pre-frontal cortex