Anxiety Disorders

Portion of hippocampus found to play role in modulating anxiety

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have found the first evidence that selective activation of the dentate gyrus, a portion of the hippocampus, can reduce anxiety without affecting learning. ...

Neuroscience created Mar 06, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Protein synthesis blocker may hold key to reducing effects of traumatic events

Reducing fear and stress following a traumatic event could be as simple as providing a protein synthesis blocker to the brain, report a team of researchers from McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, McGill University, ...

Neuroscience created Mar 04, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Early stress may sensitize girls' brains for later anxiety

High levels of family stress in infancy are linked to differences in everyday brain function and anxiety in teenage girls, according to new results of a long-running population study by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists.

Neuroscience created Nov 11, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Decreased gene activity is likely involved in childhood risk for anxiety and depression

Decreased activity of a group of genes may explain why in young children the "fear center" of the anxious brain can't learn to distinguish real threats from the imaginary, according to a new University of Wisconsin study.

Psychology & Psychiatry created Oct 18, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Learning to overcome fear is difficult for teens, brain study finds

A new study by Weill Cornell Medical College researchers shows that adolescents' reactions to threat remain high even when the danger is no longer present. According to researchers, once a teenager's brain is triggered by ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Sep 27, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Brain scans could help doctors choose treatments for people with social anxiety disorder

A new study led by MIT neuroscientists has found that brain scans of patients with social anxiety disorder can help predict whether they will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy.

Psychology & Psychiatry created Sep 06, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Heavy drinking rewires brain, increasing susceptibility to anxiety problems

Doctors have long recognized a link between alcoholism and anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those who drink heavily are at increased risk for traumatic events like car accidents and domestic ...

Neuroscience created Sep 02, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Anxious girls' brains work harder

In a discovery that could help in the identification and treatment of anxiety disorders, Michigan State University scientists say the brains of anxious girls work much harder than those of boys.

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jun 05, 2012 | popularity 1.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

People with spider phobia handle tarantulas, have lasting changes in brain after short therapy

A single brief therapy session for adults with a lifelong debilitating spider phobia resulted in lasting changes to the brain's response to fear.

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 21, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Mystery gene reveals new mechanism for anxiety disorders

A novel mechanism for anxiety behaviors, including a previously unrecognized inhibitory brain signal, may inspire new strategies for treating psychiatric disorders, University of Chicago researchers report.

Genetics created May 15, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

From stimulus to emotion: A role for cortex in emotional learning

(Medical Xpress) -- A team of neurobiologists around Andreas Lüthi at the Friedrich Miescher Institute of Biomedical Research has shown for the first time that cortex, the largest area of the brain that ...

Neuroscience created Dec 08, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Perinatal antidepressant stunts brain development

Rats exposed to an antidepressant just before and after birth showed substantial brain abnormalities and behaviors, in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Medical research created Oct 24, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Neuroscientists discover new player in how brain deals with stress

Neuroscientists investigating the 'brain code' claim to have made a significant step forwards in understanding how the brain deals with stress- and mitigates its impact.

Neuroscience created Oct 03, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Control of fear in the brain decoded

When healthy people are faced with threatening situations, they react with a suitable behavioural response and do not descend into a state of either panic or indifference, as is the case, for example, with ...

Neuroscience created Sep 06, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Stress in the city: Brain activity and biology behind mood disorders of urban residents

Being born and raised in a major urban area is associated with greater lifetime risk for anxiety and mood disorders. Until now, the biology for these associations had not been described. A new international study, which involved ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jun 22, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast


Anxiety disorder is a blanket term covering several different forms of a type of mental illness of abnormal and pathological fear and anxiety. Conditions now considered anxiety disorders only came under the aegis of psychiatry at the end of the 19th century. Gelder, Mayou & Geddes (2005) explains that anxiety disorders are classified in two groups: continuous symptoms and episodic symptoms. Current psychiatric diagnostic criteria recognize a wide variety of anxiety disorders. Recent surveys have found that as many as 18% of Americans may be affected by one or more of them.

The term anxiety covers four aspects of experiences an individual may have: mental apprehension, physical tension, physical symptoms and dissociative anxiety. Anxiety disorder is divided into generalized anxiety disorder, phobic disorder, and panic disorder; each has its own characteristics and symptoms and they require different treatment (Gelder et al. 2005). The emotions present in anxiety disorders range from simple nervousness to bouts of terror (Barker 2003).

Standardized screening clinical questionnaires such as the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale or the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale can be used to detect anxiety symptoms, and suggest the need for a formal diagnostic assessment of anxiety disorder.

This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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