Anxiety disorders, including panic disorder with or without agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and separation anxiety disorder, are the most ...prevalent mental disorders and are associated with immense health care costs and a high burden of disease. According to large population-based surveys, up to 33.7% of the population are affected by an anxiety disorder during their lifetime. Substantial underrecognition and undertreatment of these disorders have been demonstrated. There is no evidence that the prevalence rates of anxiety disorders have changed in the past years. In cross-cultural comparisons, prevalence rates are highly variable. It is more likely that this heterogeneity is due to differences in methodology than to cultural influences. Anxiety disorders follow a chronic course; however, there is a natural decrease in prevalence rates with older age. Anxiety disorders are highly comorbid with other anxiety disorders and other mental disorders.
Assessing anxiety in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is inherently challenging due to overlapping (e.g., social avoidance) and ambiguous symptoms (e.g., fears of change). An ASD addendum to the ...Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule-Child/Parent, Parent Version (ADIS/ASA) was developed to provide a systematic approach for differentiating traditional anxiety disorders from symptoms of ASD and more ambiguous, ASD-related anxiety symptoms. Interrater reliability and convergent and discriminant validity were examined in a sample of 69 youth with ASD (8-13 years, 75% male, IQ = 68-143) seeking treatment for anxiety. The parents of participants completed the ADIS/ASA and a battery of behavioral measures. A second rater independently observed and scored recordings of the original interviews. Findings suggest reliable measurement of comorbid (intraclass correlation = 0.85-0.98, κ = 0.67-0.91) as well as ambiguous anxiety-like symptoms (intraclass correlation = 0.87-95, κ = 0.77-0.90) in children with ASD. Convergent and discriminant validity were supported for the traditional anxiety symptoms on the ADIS/ASA, whereas convergent and discriminant validity were partially supported for the ambiguous anxiety-like symptoms. Results provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the ADIS/ASA as a measure of traditional anxiety categories in youth with ASD, with partial support for the validity of the ambiguous anxiety-like categories. Unlike other measures, the ADIS/ASA differentiates comorbid anxiety disorders from overlapping and ambiguous anxiety-like symptoms in ASD, allowing for more precise measurement and clinical conceptualization. Ambiguous anxiety-like symptoms appear phenomenologically distinct from comorbid anxiety disorders and may reflect either symptoms of ASD or a novel variant of anxiety in ASD.
Maths anxiety – and how to overcome it Gabriel, Florence
Significance (Oxford, England),
February 2022, 2022-02-01, 20220201, Volume:
19, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Negative feelings about maths create a barrier to learning. In a world awash with numbers this has worrying implications. Florence Gabriel shares the latest thinking on dealing with “maths anxiety”
...Negative feelings about maths create a barrier to learning. In a world awash with numbers this has worrying implications. Florence Gabriel shares the latest thinking on dealing with “maths anxiety”.
Anxiety and depression are prevalent among cancer patients, with significant negative impact. Many patients prefer herbs for symptom relief to conventional medications which have limited ...efficacy/side effects. We identified single‐herb medicines that may warrant further study in cancer patients. Our search included PubMed, Allied and Complementary Medicine, Embase, and Cochrane databases, selecting only single‐herb randomized controlled trials between 1996 and 2016 in any population for data extraction, excluding herbs with known potential for interactions with cancer treatments. One hundred articles involving 38 botanicals met our criteria. Among herbs most studied (≥6 randomized controlled trials each), lavender, passionflower, and saffron produced benefits comparable to standard anxiolytics and antidepressants. Black cohosh, chamomile, and chasteberry are also promising. Anxiety or depressive symptoms were measured in all studies, but not always as primary endpoints. Overall, 45% of studies reported positive findings with fewer adverse effects compared with conventional medications. Based on available data, black cohosh, chamomile, chasteberry, lavender, passionflower, and saffron appear useful in mitigating anxiety or depression with favorable risk–benefit profiles compared to standard treatments. These may benefit cancer patients by minimizing medication load and accompanying side effects. However, well‐designed larger clinical trials are needed before these herbs can be recommended and to further assess their psycho‐oncologic relevance.
The present research corresponds to a non-experimental cross-sectional study that analyzed the effects of the trait-state anxiety variables on positive affectivity and satisfaction with life. ...Following a convenience sampling, participants were 742 university students. The instruments used were the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), the Trait-State Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the positive affects dimension of the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). Structural Equation Models were conducted to assess the effect of the studied variables on wellbeing. Results showed that the trait-anxiety model presents slight inverse relations (b < 0.10; Cohen, 1988) with life satisfaction and positive affectivity, while the state-anxiety model presents moderate relations (b < 0.30). This last one is a better predictor of life satisfaction and positive affectivity. The overall model presents an adequate fit to data (RMSEA = 0.037, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.93, SRMR = 0.049). It is concluded that state anxiety has a stronger effect on wellbeing indicators.
Robust Dimensions of Anxiety Sensitivity Taylor, Steven; Zvolensky, Michael J; Cox, Brian J ...
Psychological assessment,
06/2007, Volume:
19, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Accumulating evidence suggests that anxiety sensitivity (fear of arousal-related sensations) plays an important role in many clinical conditions, particularly anxiety disorders. Research has ...increasingly focused on how the basic dimensions of anxiety sensitivity are related to various forms of psychopathology. Such work has been hampered because the original measure-the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI)-was not designed to be multidimensional. Subsequently developed multidimensional measures have unstable factor structures or measure only a subset of the most widely replicated factors. Therefore, the authors developed, via factor analysis of responses from U.S. and Canadian nonclinical participants (
n
= 2,361), an 18-item measure, the ASI-3, which assesses the 3 factors best replicated in previous research: Physical, Cognitive, and Social Concerns. Factorial validity of the ASI-3 was supported by confirmatory factor analyses of 6 replication samples, including nonclinical samples from the United States and Canada, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain (
n
= 4,494) and a clinical sample from the United States and Canada (
n
= 390). The ASI-3 displayed generally good performance on other indices of reliability and validity, along with evidence of improved psychometric properties over the original ASI.
Brady and Kendall (1992) concluded that although anxiety and depression in youths are meaningfully linked, there are important distinctions, and additional research is needed. Since then, studies of ...anxiety-depression comorbidity in youths have increased exponentially. Following a discussion of comorbidity, we review existing conceptual models and propose a multiple pathways model to anxiety-depression comorbidity. Pathway 1 describes youths with a diathesis for anxiety, with subsequent comorbid depression resulting from anxiety-related impairment. Pathway 2 refers to youths with a shared diathesis for anxiety and depression, who may experience both disorders simultaneously. Pathway 3 describes youths with a diathesis for depression, with subsequent comorbid anxiety resulting from depression-related impairment. Additionally, shared and stratified risk factors contribute to the development of the comorbid disorder, either by interacting with disorder-related impairment or by predicting the simultaneous development of the disorders. Our review addresses descriptive and developmental factors, gender differences, suicidality, assessments, and treatment-outcome research as they relate to comorbid anxiety and depression and to our proposed pathways. Research since 1992 indicates that comorbidity varies depending on the specific anxiety disorder, with Pathway 1 describing youths with either social phobia or separation anxiety disorder and subsequent depression, Pathway 2 applying to youths with coprimary generalized anxiety disorder and depression, and Pathway 3 including depressed youths with subsequent social phobia. The need to test the proposed multiple pathways model and to examine (a) developmental change and (b) specific anxiety disorders is highlighted.
Research over the past few decades has focused on the therapeutic effects of physical exercise among those affected by mood disorders. Only recently has attention turned to maladaptive and persistent ...expressions of anxiety, with a growing body of evidence indicating promise for exercise as an effective treatment for some of the anxiety disorders. The current review provides a comprehensive account of contemporary research examining the anxiolytic effects of exercise for anxiety disorders. We synthesize pertinent research regarding the effects of various types of exercise within the different anxiety disorders, consider impact of various types of exercise regimens on anxiety, and examine potential anxiolytic mechanisms responsible for positive mental health gains. We conclude with important considerations for implementing exercise as a treatment for clinically significant anxiety as well as future research directions.
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