|
|
Agoraphobia
See Also:
Agoraphobia:
Introduction & Overview
Agoraphobia: Symptoms
Agoraphobia:
Causes & Risk Factors
Agoraphobia:
Treatment Options
Agoraphobia Treatment
Options
Agoraphobia can be treated
with medication and psychotherapy.
Medication.
Individuals with agoraphobia can benefit from medication
to treat the symptoms. There are two types of medication
prescribed:
-
Antidepressants: Some of the antidepressants
administrated in patients with agoraphobia include: selective
serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which is the first choice
of medication prescribed for agoraphobia patients due to their few
side effects, tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), or MAO
inhibitors (MAOIs). Unfortunately, the desired effects occur
only after several weeks of treatment.
-
Anti-anxiety medication: Benzodiazepine tranquilizers
are prescribed because of their immediate effects in reducing the
symptoms. Anti-anxiety medication helps in controlling the anxiety
and panic attacks. The main disadvantage of benzodiazepines are
increased agoraphobia symptoms when the treatment is stopped. Benzadiazepine
also reduces the mental sharpness needed if the patient undergoes
psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy. Individuals
with agoraphobia seems to benefit mostly from
psychotherapy. There are three types of psychotherapies
used to treat agoraphobia: (1) behavioral therapy, (2)
cognitive therapy, and (3) cognitive-behavioral therapy.
-
Behavioral Therapy:Behavioral
therapy is an effective treatment because individuals with agoraphobia
learn to modify and gain control over unwanted behaviors, and to
cope with challenging situations. During the initial phases of behavioral
therapy, the person identifies those situations where the avoidance
behavior occurs. The unwanted and unhealthy behaviors are changed
through systematic desensitization (also called exposure therapy).
The first step is learning relaxation skills that allows the person
to cope and control the fear and anxiety. The second step is gradual
exposure (first in imagination and than in reality) to feared stimulus.
-
Cognitive therapy.
Cognitive therapy is another therapy that can bring relief in those
with agoraphobia. It can serve as an alternative if the behavioral
therapy failes. Cognitive therapy focuses on re-training the way
the person thinks. The benefit of this type of therapy is that (1)
the person gains information regarding their condition and what
it causes, (2) learns relaxations techniques that help him control
the fear, anxiety, and panic attack symptoms, (3) gains control
over the dysfunctional thoughts by realistically evaluating and
modifying the thinking patterns that trigger the agoraphobic symptoms,
and (4) faces the feared situation by applying the new skills achieved.
-
Cognitive-behavioral
therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is considered the most
effective psychotherapy that can treat agoraphobia. This type of
therapy considers that our thoughts and not the external situations,
people or events, trigger the behavior and feelings. This form of
therapy combines methods from behavioral and cognitive therapies
for a better outcome. Cognitive-behavioral therapy retrains the
way a person thinks and reacts to different stimulus. This is possible
if following several steps:
Education,
a step where the therapist explains the
cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes
involved in anxiety, panic attacks or
panic-like-symptoms.
Monitoring,
a step where the person monitors the frequency,
severity, and length of panic attacks or
panic-like symptoms, and identifies the
situations when panic attacks or panic-like
symptoms occur.
Physical
control strategies, a step where the person
learns relaxation techniques which decrease the
physical symptoms (heavy breathing, fast heart
beat, trembling, etc.) that maintains the fear
and anxiety.
Psychological
control strategies, a step where the person
is taught to realistically evaluate and modify
thinking patterns that trigger and help maintain
the fear and anxiety.
Behavioral
strategies, a step where the person is
encouraged to face the feared situations that
cause anxiety by applying their newly learned
skills.
Individuals with
agoraphobia seems to mostly benefit from exposure
therapy, when the person eliminates the association
originally formed between panic symptoms and feared
situations, and cognitive restructuring, when the
person identifies those thoughts associated with the
feared situations, and replace them with realistic,
functional thoughts.
See Also:
Agoraphobia:
Introduction & Overview
Agoraphobia: Symptoms
Agoraphobia:
Causes & Risk Factors
Agoraphobia:
Treatment Options
Article by Alina Morrow
MS Psychology
Medical Writer
OmniMedicalSearch.com
Sources:
Anxietypanic.com, Agoraphobia, Unknown date
Wrong Diagnosis, Agoraphobia, 2007
HealthAtoZ, Agoraphobia, August 2006
MayoClinic.com, Agoraphobia, April 2007
PsychCentral, Anxiety and panic, Agoraphobia, Symptoms,
September 2006
About.com, Panic disorder, What is Agoraphobia,
February 2007
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
Fourth edition, Agoraphobia and Agoraphobia
Without History of Panic Disorder, May 2003
Encyclopedia of Mental Disorder, Agoraphobia, 2007
Insight Journal, Agoraphobia: Information, Causes,
Symptoms and Treatment, April 2007
AArticleBoard.com, Behavioral Therapy &
Agoraphobia, Unknown date
Agoraphobia is sometimes
misspelled as: agorophobia, agraphobia and agrophobia.
|
|
