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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 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 help
controlling the anxiety and panic attacks. The
main disadvantage of benzodiazepine is 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.
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