Conditions & Diseases: Psychological

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Introduction & Overview
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Signs & Symptoms
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Treatment Options

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Treatment

Generalized anxiety disorder is a debilitating condition due to the chronic worry and exaggerated anxiety that requires treatment. The treatment option available include psychotherapy and medication, usually administrated in combination for a better outcome.

person to situations that cause anxiety by forcing the person to cope with the fear.

Cognitive therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on changing peoples’ unproductive and inaccurate beliefs which are the main source of psychological problems.

There are two cognitive therapy approaches effective in treating generalized anxiety disorder: (1) cognitive restructuring techniques that focuses on altering the dysfunctional thinking pattern that leads to excessive worry and (2) relaxation training that focuses on reducing the physical over arousal state that maintains the worry process and psychosomatic symptoms associated with the disorder (gastrointestinal distress, sleeplessness, fatigue, breathing problems).

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is one of the most effective psychotherapies in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. This type of therapy considers that our thoughts and not the external situations, people or events, trigger the behavior and feelings. The benefit of this perspective is that a person can change the way he or she thinks and further the way he or she feels and acts when the situations, other people or events do not change.This form of therapy combines methods from behavioral and cognitive therapies for a better outcome.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety disorder focuses on re-training the way the person thinks. This is possible if following several essential steps:

1. Education, step where the therapist explains the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes involved in anxiety.

2. Monitoring, step where the person who suffer from GAD learns to monitor his or her anxiety by identifying the triggers, conditions when anxiety occurs, the specific things that make the object of worry, and the severity and length of the anxiety episodes.

3. Physical control strategies, step when the person that suffers from GAD is taught how to relax and decrease the physical over arousal that maintain the fear and anxiety.

4. Psychological control strategies, step where the person is taught to realistically evaluate and modify thinking patterns that trigger and help maintain the fear.

5. Behavioral strategies, step where the person is encouraged to face those situations that cause him fear and anxiety. This step can be first tried by imagination and in some cases even in reality.

II. Medication is another treatment option available for those that suffer from generalized anxiety disorder. There are three main types of medication prescribed for people that suffer from generalized anxiety disorder:

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which includes: fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine, venlafaxine, is a group of antidepressants that correct the serotonin imbalance by blocking the reuptake of the serotonin from the synapse to the nerve and artificially increasing the serotonin that is available in the synapse. This type of medication reduces the generalized anxiety disorder symptoms and the depressed symptoms, common among those that suffer from this disorder.

Tricyclic antidepressant seems to be as effective as the new antidepressants, but are rarely prescribed due to their uncomfortable side effects (dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, and weight gain).

High-potency anti-anxiety medications includes two different medications, both targeting only the anxiety symptoms:

(1) Benzodiazepines, such as Xanax and Valium. This type of anxiety medication works fast (usually within 30 minutes to an hour after administration) and have few side effects. However, the main disadvantage is that taken for a long period of time, it can become addictive. This medication is usually prescribed in severe forms of anxiety.

(2) Buspirone, such as Buspar. This medication needs to be taken for at least two weeks in order to start working and is consider safe for chronic forms of anxiety. However, this medication improves the symptoms, but will not completely eliminate anxiety.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Introduction & Overview
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Signs & Symptoms
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Treatment Options

Article by Alina Morrow,
MS Psychology
Medical Writer
OmniMedicalSearch.com

Sources:
Cognitive Therapy in Action: A Practitioners' Casebook, by Ivy Blackbum and Vivien Twaddle, A Case of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, April 1996
Anxiety Disorder Association of America (ADAA), Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Date Unknown.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV-TR, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, May 2003.
HelpGuide.com, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment, August 2006
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Generalized Anxiety Disorder, June 2000
Mental Health America (MHA), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), November 2006
National Institute of Mental Health, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), September 2007
Academy of Cognitive Therapy, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), by Michael A. Tompkins, Ph.D., Founding Fellow, ACT, November 2005