MOOD & ANXIETY DISORDERS
Mania
Impairment in occupational and/or social functioning
Not attributable to a general medical illness or a drug/medication effect
At least three of:
Distinct period of abnormally elated or irritable mood at least seven days for first episode.
Grandiosity
Pressured speech
Decreased need for sleep
Flight of ideas or racing thoughts
Distractibility
Increased goal-directed activity or agitation
Poor judgment/risky behaviors
Bipolar disorder
BD I
BD II
Rapid cycling
Mixed features
Seasonal pattern
With psychotic features
Major depressive disorder (MDD)
Melancholia
Atypical
Neurotic
Seasonal
Psychotic
Chronic
Postpartem
With mixed features
Major depressive episode (MDE)
Anxiety disorders
Panic disorder
Specific phobia
Generalized anxiety disorder
Social anxiety disorder (social phobia)
Schizoaffective disorder
Psychotic episode lasts two or more weeks past mood episode subsiding
Mood component
Must have 3 of 6 physical symptoms
Persistent, excessive worry about a variety of routine events or occurrences. Symptoms must have persisted for more than 6 months and must be present on more days than not.
Muscle tension
Sleep disturbance
Irritability
Poor concentration
Easy fatigue (hyperarousal and constant cortisol)
Restlessness
A note on GAD vs. normal anxiety
GAD: Worries are difficult to control and interfere with functioning. Worries are pervasive, pronounced, distressing, of long duration, and occur without precipitation, physical symptoms are present.
Normal anxiety: Worries are controllable and can be put off until later. Worries are situational, limited to few circumstances, and self-limiting. Physical symptoms are minimal or absent.
Epidemiology
Course of illness
Comorbidity
Social phobia (social anxiety disorder), AUD, Panic, MDD, Cluster C traits
Onset in teens (on average), often chronic, full symptom remission is uncommon
Lifetime prevalence 3-4%, female to male ratio 2:1, commonly encountered by PCPs
Neurobiology
Chronic hyperarousal leads to elevated sympathetic output, which in turn increases the gain of sensory input, causing individuals to be more somatically preoccupied and to experience discomfort differently. Hyperarousal regardless of context.
Somatic manifestations: emotional states are closely tied to our enteric nervous system, bi-directional feedback exists and 95% of the body's serotonin is in our gut.
Treatment
Medications alone are as effective as CBT alone. Combination treatment is most effective. Patients respond well to mindfulness medication practice. Trains the mind to rest in an awareness of the present moment. Effective in GAD because patients get "stuck" in the future.
Diagnostic criteria
Signs & symptoms
Learned pattern of "false alarm" attacks.
Disorder of false alarms and it just triggers. A panic attack is an intense flood of anxiety in response to an immediate threat, accompanied by a surge of sympathetic output, mind and body go into "overdrive."
Chest tightening, trembling, hyperventilation, flushing, palpitations, diaphoresis, GI upset, dizziness, derealization, sense of dread.
Persistent worry about having a panic attack (lasting greater than one month).
A note on normal panic versus panic disorder
Normal panic: if you accidentally walk into the street and a bus is heading at you, a panic response is natural and protective (the threat is real and this serves as a "true alarm." Having one or two "false alarm" attacks is not sufficient for a diagnosis without the fear of future attacks. Almost 40% of Americans have a "false alarm."
Panic disorder: occurs when "false alarm" attacks become a pattern. When panic occurs "out of the blue" without a clear threat or apparent danger, it is considered a "false alarm" attack.
One consequence of panic disorder can be agoraphobia (although this is also a stand alone disorder).
Epidemiology
Half as prevalent as GAD, women remain more vulnerable than men.
Course of illness
Chronic, relapses common though patients can recover quickly with good therapy. Patients with Panic Disorder are high utilizers of medical resources, particularly ER settings. Medical workups for possible organic causes are often repeated in excess to reassure patients (and doctors).
Agoraphobia is an avoidance of situations where a panic attack might occur and/or escape would be difficult. Not all Panic Disorder patients develop agoraphobia. It is a coping strategy or managing the fear of having a panic attack, and at its most severe patients may not leave their home, or even a specific room. Short term it is effective, but long term only fuels the panic symptoms.
Diagnostic criteria
Defined as enduring and excessive fear of a specific object or situation. The fear must be out of proportion to any real danger. The patient is aware that the fear is illogical/irrational.
Epidemiology
Approximately 8% of adults have a diagnosable phobia. In women fear of animals is most common; in men fear of heights is most common. Onset typically occurs during childhood.
Treatment
Exposure therapy is most effective.
Results in avoidance of phobic stimulus, resulting in a vicious cycle.
Experience overwhelming amounts of anticipatory anxiety. Develop hypersensitivity to criticism or rejection. Engage in elaborate avoidance behaviors.
Diagnostic criteria
Core features include fear of scrutiny from others and fear of embarrassment. This can be performance based or interactional in nature.
Treatment
Behavioral therapy can help. Model involves identifying patients' "safety behaviors." Safety behaviors are a barrier to learning new skills. Exposing patients to social situations without letter them use safety behaviors. No comparison studies exist.
Treatment options; pharmacotherapy (SSRIs, SNRIs, TCAs; GABA, other agents) & psychotherapy.
Treatment
Medications alone are as effective as CBT alone. CBT effects are thought to last longer. Combination treatment is most effective.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Obsessions
Unwanted thoughts, images, or impulses that cause marked anxiety/distress. Attempts to ignore, suppress or neutralize. Not simply excessive worries about real-life problems (GAD). Recognized as the product of one's mind.
Compulsions
Repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed in response to obsessions. Aimed at reducing distress or preventing dreaded event (e.g. contracting disease). Cardinal feature: neutralizing.
Checking compulsions
Mental compulsions
Doubting obsesion
Special words, images, numbers recreated mentally to neutralize anxiety. Special prayers repeated in a set manner. Mental counting, list-making, reviewing.
Clinical course: unremitting and chronic. Phasic with period of complete remission. Episodic with incomplete remission.
Comorbidity
Treating OCD can reduce PD as well
Comorbid depression is typically secondary to the OCD
Epidemiology
Etiology
Genetic studies are "contaminated" by experience and environmental factors!
Mood disorders, other anxiety disorders, tic disorders (20% of people with OCD have tics), eating disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders.
Prevalence of 1-2% but not particularly easy to treat