Treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. Anxiety Disorders Anxiety Disorder Treatment Clinic

Anxiety disorder crosses out plans for life and does not give a sober look at the real state of affairs. A person, like a squirrel in a wheel, constantly gets hung up on trifles - from the light forgotten in the corridor to worries about gifts on New Year. Being under constant pressure of fears and experiences, such people stop enjoying life, become depressed and often project unreasonable fears onto loved ones.

Pathological anxiety lasts for a long time and at some point becomes unbearable. It is impossible for a person with an anxiety disorder to relax even on a warm beach, let alone an evening rest with the family. Efficiency decreases, relations with relatives become tense, friends stop answering calls. However, many of the problems that a mental disorder brings with it are easily compensated. fast treatment diseases.

Treatment for generalized anxiety disorder begins with a diagnosis. The diagnosis is made by a psychiatrist or psychotherapist, provided that pathological anxiety persists for 6 months. Treatment of an anxiety disorder is a feasible task for a psychotherapist who, in the presence of depression and concomitant mental disorders prescribe medication (supportive) therapy.

Generalized anxiety disorder is usually accompanied by physical ailments, headache, heart palpitations, and excessive sweating. This condition can occur anywhere and make you worry about your health. In addition, insomnia and other sleep disorders that directly affect overall well-being and concentration become frequent companions of anxiety disorders. Therefore, we advise you not to delay seeking medical attention at the first signs of an anxiety disorder.

Quiz: Spielberger Anxiety Scale

Read each of the following sentences carefully and choose an answer based on how you usually feel.

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Number of questions in the test: 20

Anxiety disorder treatment doctor

Causes of Generalized Disorder

Young people are most susceptible to this disease. The risk group includes young people aged 20–30 years with an alarming type of character accentuation, which are subjected to negative effects of a different nature, stressful situations.

The formation and development of an anxious personality type occurs in early childhood, school and adolescence. Such people are unsure of themselves, lack of initiative. They are afraid to make a mistake, have an increased sense of fear and unreasonable anxiety. They are constantly pursued by various phobias.

If such people are exposed to factors that can injure the psyche, then the possibility of developing an anxiety disorder is high. It can be either neurosis or GAD, which is one of the most severe manifestations.

The disease can provoke:

• persistent stressful situation. Usually this situation is associated with the death of a loved one. People are not ready for death, so this fact causes deep stress, sometimes lasting for a very long time. Troubles at work, demotions, layoffs, and layoffs can lead to stress.
• Preconditions of a hereditary nature. If there are (were) people in the family who are prone to nervous disorders, anxiety prone to depression, then it is likely that this type nervous system may be inherited.
• Emotional trauma. AT childhood the development of the disease occurs against the background of frequent punishments, injustice, despotism on the part of parents, and strict upbringing. For people who experienced the death of relatives in childhood, this situation can provoke anxiety and anxiety in adulthood. Lack of parental love and care in childhood can lead to the development of a disease such as basal anxiety. It is characterized by helplessness, loneliness, a sense of uselessness and lack of demand, on the basis of which various inferiority complexes develop.
• Diseases associated with disorders of the nervous system.

GAD can arise and be formed in completely healthy person prone to nervous diseases, as well as in those people who are prone to disease at the gene level. Medicine cannot name the absolute prerequisites that cause the occurrence of GAD. Absolutely, the main reasons cannot be only the presence of a stressful situation, as well as the presence of injuries of a physical or emotional nature.

Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

A sense of self-preservation, which is based on reasonable anxiety, helps people to be more attentive and careful. This indicator increases the chances of survival in this complex world full of dangers.

However, if such fears and anxiety arise constantly and for no reason, then such a condition can be confidently qualified as pathological. It interferes with the normal existence in the social environment and in everyday life.

Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder:

• Long term (several weeks or months) manifestations of symptoms, expressed in a sense of fear, excitement, nervous tension and anxiety. Usually, after six months of constant observation of these symptoms, it is possible to state the disease with certainty.
• No reason. Anxiety symptoms occur without a specific cause in normal and calm situations.
• Prominent character. A person worries in any life situation, the slightest deviation from the usual rhythm of life causes fear and panic.
• Muscle tension and pain expressed in hypertonicity of the extremities, trembling and tremor. Pain in the head at the same time can be characterized as a "muscular helmet", which, like a vise, compresses the temples and the back of the head. Diagnosis of muscle weakness is less common, but may lead to total loss mobility of the hands and feet.
• Emotional Disorders. Feelings of anxiety, fear, and panic are uncontrollable and unreasonable. The patient may feel restless after a good rest and sleep.
• Pathological processes vegetative system . Violations are expressed in increased sweating, dry mouth, angina attacks. Anxiety may be accompanied by dizziness, fainting and loss of consciousness. The patient may feel a feeling of tightness in the chest, lack of air, pain when inhaling, visual and hearing impairment;
• Insomnia and sleep disturbance. With a generalized disorder, patients do not fall asleep well, they are haunted by nightmares, forcing them to wake up in a cold sweat. Sleep is characterized by incoherent dreams, after which patients feel tired, irritable and anxious.

In a generalized disorder, worsening general condition patient. Often, with GAD, patients believe that the causes of their fears and anxiety lie in a somatic disease. They complain of lethargy and general weakness, pain in the abdomen, heaviness and squeezing in the chest and other negative sensations.

GTR diagnostics

In order to establish an accurate diagnosis of GAD, the symptoms, which are expressed in constant unreasonable fear and anxiety, must persist for many weeks or months in a row.

The diagnosis of GAD can be made when:

• Uncontrollable fear and anxiety;
• Muscle tension (tremor of the limbs, trembling, fussiness);
• Manifestations of autonomic disorders (profuse sweating, rapid breathing and pulse, dizziness, fainting, etc.).

Note! Generalized anxiety disorder affects 3 to 5% of the country's population. Before making a diagnosis, the doctors of our clinic conduct tests and other studies, on the basis of which they exclude the possibility of developing other diseases, for example, neurasthenia, which has similar symptoms.

At the first appointment, our specialists usually determine the degree of the disease. And only after that, the psychiatrist prescribes a course of psychotherapy and individually for each patient selects a medical method of traditional therapy.

In our clinic, we carry out the following therapy with the help of medications:

• As a first aid, our specialists use medicines such as phenazepam and similar benzodiazepine tranquilizers. we go through the steps. We usually prescribe a course of treatment with tranquilizers for two months or a shorter period. A longer period can lead to the development of drug dependence.
• During periods of sleep disturbance, our doctors prescribe ivadal and similar drugs that help normalize sleep at night.
• If the patient experiences fear and anxiety, and at the same time he has pronounced symptoms depression, then in our clinic the patient is usually prescribed the use of Zoloft, Paxil and the like medications, as well as tranquilizers. Only with this combination will the treatment be most effective.

Anxiety disorder treatment with anxiety, we treat with taralen, tizercin and other drugs belonging to the group of neuroleptics. For each specific case and each specific patient, we select individual techniques.

Once again, we draw your attention to the fact that we first establish an accurate diagnosis, thoroughly study, check and test the patient's condition. And only after that we confirm the diagnosis.

For the treatment of GAD in our clinic, we also give preference to psychotherapeutic methods: cognitive-behavioral, short-term psychodynamic, autogenic training, biofeedback methods (BFB).

The advantages of biofeedback is the identification of the internal forces of the body. The patient learns to control himself, his behavior, to get rid of anxiety, worries and fear.

Methods of psychotherapy are also selected for each patient individually, based on the diagnosis.

anxiety disorder in modern medicine qualifies as mental. It is manifested by a feeling of constant anxiety, general nervousness and constant tension. The disease is called "non-fixed" due to the lack of a clear relationship between the patient's worries and the observed circumstances of his life.

According to statistics, women are often affected by anxiety-depressive disorders. The disease progresses against the background of chronic stress and has an undulating course. Anxiety disorders are treated in specialized centers by experienced psychiatrists.

Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders

It is worth distinguishing between generalized and adapted state of anxiety. In the first case, we are talking about constant anxiety, which is the "background" of a person's daily life. The second form appears only in certain situations.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms:

• persistent nervousness;
• trembling in the body;
• muscle tension;
• fussiness;
• dizziness;
• increased sweating;
• discomfort in the solar plexus area;
• epigastric discomfort;
• constant excitement;
• obsessive fears (related to a person or his loved ones).

Doctors Diagnose Generalized Anxiety Disorder by Dial characteristic symptoms, which are observed for at least two weeks, i.e., are stable. The reasons for their appearance are varied: starting with traumatic psyche life situations ending with biological abnormalities in the body. This condition is aggravated by depression, malfunctions of the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

How is anxiety disorder treated?

Modern treatment programs in clinics play a leading role in psychotherapy. Even one lengthy conversation with a doctor, during which the patient will receive an explanation of the somatic symptoms that he is experiencing, helps to reduce the overall level of tension and anxiety. Also worrisome- depressive disorder responds well to:

• relaxation (progressive muscular and applied);
• meditation;
• auto-training;
• cognitive therapy.

The prescription of medications in the treatment regimen is used as adjuvant therapy. The safest and effective drugs, which do not cause addiction and allow you to gently get rid of muscle tension, insomnia, fussiness. When admitting patients, staff medical center creates the most calm, comfortable environment, explaining in detail each stage of therapy.

Anxiety disorders- these are states that are manifested by excessive and (or) anxiety and fear that do not correspond to external circumstances. It should be emphasized that anxiety in itself is not pathological condition, being an internal mental signal indicating danger in the outside world and the need to mobilize behavior to eliminate the threat (“fight or flight” according to G. Selye).

An anxiety disorder is a deviation of anxiety from normal level, most often upward, leading to a violation of human adaptation, constant tension, sometimes - a decrease in working capacity and a violation in relations with other people.

Classification of anxiety disorders

There are several types of anxiety disorders:

Phobic Anxiety Disorders(phobias), in which a person is afraid of something specific (agoraphobia - fear of open spaces and places where you can be without help, social phobia - fear of public speaking, simple phobias - fear of anything: spiders, snakes, contracting an infection through hands, etc. .P.). With phobias on an object that causes fear, there is a shift in fear of one's inner thoughts, feelings and desires, which contradict conscious attitudes.

Panic Disorders, characterized by attacks of very intense anxiety (see the section on panic attacks).

Generalized Anxiety Disorders characterized by persistent anxiety (more than 6 months), extending to various, sometimes insignificant events, with pronounced tension, anxiety and a sense of impending troubles in everyday events and problems; a variety of fears, worries, forebodings, from which a person suffers throughout the day.

Mixed anxiety and depressive disorder, in which the symptoms of anxiety and depression are combined (that is, low mood with a loss of desires and pleasure from life (see the section on depression).

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder- in which in the foreground there are symptoms of obsessive thoughts and obsessive actions aimed at getting rid of, diverting consciousness from pathological anxiety, linking it, reducing it.

Anxiety as a symptom different options occurs in all mental disorders, combined with other symptoms. Anxiety can be either free-floating or associated, that is, masked or covered by other symptoms (asthenia (weakness, irritability), somatic pains and ailments, obsessive thoughts and actions).

Anxiety can be accompanied by many other symptoms:

• mental (irritability, poor concentration, etc.),
• somatic (pain and tension in the muscles, dry mouth, discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract, difficulty breathing, discomfort in the heart, palpitations, frequent urination, disappearance of erection, decreased libido, menstrual disorders, dizziness, etc.)

What are the causes of anxiety?

Anxiety can be personal or situational. Personal anxiety is a reaction to external and internal stimuli learned in the process of our development, associated with the developing ability either to mobilize ourselves for action or to calm down and relax.

People prone to pathological anxiety in early childhood (when their personality was being formed) could have anxious parents who suggested that “the world is a dangerous place”, humiliating and criticizing older brothers or sisters, instilling in the child a sense of insecurity.

Also, increased personal anxiety can occur if the child often witnessed quarrels of parents, suffered the death of one of the parents, or was separated for a long time from parents in early age. In inner world of a person, images of caring parents (through imitation of which a person’s own personality is built at an early age) as a result are ridiculous, depressed, absent, etc.

Situational anxiety is a response to stressful events. Each person has a threshold of ability to cope with them. If these events (whether positive or negative: funerals, weddings, breakups of significant relationships, dismissal, promotion, etc.) become more than he can bear (even if his personality is not initially anxious), he may develop anxiety disorder.

How do people deal with pathological anxiety?

Pathological anxiety is a condition that requires the help of a specialist, usually a psychotherapist or psychiatrist. In rare cases, anxiety disorders go away on their own.

Due to the fact that anxiety is an unpleasant condition, people often resort to various methods to get rid of it. We list the most common:

• taking alcohol or other available sedatives (Corvalol, alcoholic solutions of valerian, motherwort, etc.), based on one's own ideas about pathological anxiety, often erroneous;
• looking for reasons for anxiety in diseases of the body (followed by going to doctors in search of a rare or non-existent disease);
• active fitness, sports exercises, running, etc. (anxiety discharge in action), workaholism;
• appeal to alternative medicine: from herbal treatment to urine therapy;
• conversion to mysticism and other systems that help create a shield against anxiety through familiarization with a belief system.

However, in most cases, with anxiety disorders, self-treatment may be ineffective, leading to a complication of the course of the disease, such complications as alcohol (or drug) addiction, depression, psychosomatic disorders, etc.

Treatment of anxiety disorders in our Center

The most effective step towards overcoming pathological anxiety is to contact specialists specially trained in the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders.

In the process of diagnosing and treating anxiety disorders, the specialist together with the patient solves the following tasks:

• Identification and accurate description of causes that caused anxiety, its psychological sources with the selection of the most effective therapeutic measures.
• Determination of the direction of treatment: either on the growth and development of the client (including the ability to cope with various events) or simply on the suppression of anxiety and suffering (through the prescription of drugs).

In some cases, an anxiety disorder is an occasion to think about yourself and your life in order to change it for the better (that is, not only reduce anxiety, but develop the ability to live a rich life, be realized in relationships and professional activities).

Psychotherapy is the best ally along the way. Our goal is to minimize the use of pharmacotherapy, achieving a long-term sustainable result.

In our Center, the treatment program includes the following areas that allow you to achieve the most effective and sustainable results:

• individual psychotherapy,
• biofeedback therapy,
• group psychotherapy,
• physiotherapy, etc.

Fear and anxiety are not only sources of human suffering, but also an important adaptive factor. The role of anxiety lies in the fact that it indicates an emergency and threatening changes in the surrounding world, keeps a person ready in case a potential threat arises. Mild anxiety is a normal human emotion that all of us have probably experienced. But if anxiety becomes a constant strong stress and prevents a person from leading a normal life, we can talk about a mental illness.

Anxiety disorders- This is a group of diseases of the nervous system, which manifest themselves in the form of a persistent feeling of anxiety that occurs for minor reasons or in the absence of such reasons. A painful state of anxiety is an exaggerated reaction that does not correspond to the degree of threat, even if it is present. In other words, a person can feel a strong anxiety that prevents him from living a normal life, for no reason at all.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

The most common types of anxiety disorders include:

• generalized anxiety disorder in which a person exaggerates the significance of ongoing events and is unnecessarily worried about family, health, work, financial well-being, etc. This state has nothing to do with specific life events.
• At phobias anxiety occurs in response to a stimulus and elicits an avoidance response. For example, simple phobias include the fear of the dark, thunderstorms, heights, etc., social phobia is associated with the avoidance of situations that can make a person the object of close attention of others, and agoraphobia is the fear of being away from home, in public transport and in places crowds of people.
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder arises with the participation of an obsessive and forced component. A person is tormented by annoying and repetitive ideas that cause repeated stereotyped actions. For example, frequent ritual actions of this kind - repeated washing of hands, constant rechecking, fears that something important has been missed.
• Reactive form of anxiety disorders associated with an excessive, inadequate or painful reaction to any life event. The reason for the development of such a disorder can be problems in family life, at work, when communicating with others.
• Combination of anxiety and depression. The symptoms of anxiety and depression are very similar and often overlap. Depression can exacerbate anxiety and vice versa.

All anxiety disorders may be accompanied by panic attacks - attacks (lasting from several minutes to several hours) of horror and severe, almost uncontrollable anxiety.

Causes of Anxiety Disorders

Scientists have not yet determined the exact cause of the anxiety disorder. According to one version, the development of this disease is associated with impaired activity of some parts of the brain. Serious psychological trauma and stress in the past, frequent overwork and unhealthy lifestyle, diseases internal organs, including cardiovascular and endocrine, can also lead to the development of increased anxiety.

Given the high speed of today's life and the daily psychological burden of a modern person, we can say that almost every one of us has reasons for the development of anxiety disorders.

Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders

In addition to a persistent feeling of anxiety, which is the main symptom of this condition, an anxiety disorder can also manifest itself:

• shyness, fussiness;
• fear of imaginary situations;
• impatience;
• impaired concentration, decreased mental abilities, memory impairment;
• feeling of constant tension, inability to relax;
• increased fatigue;
• irritability, tearfulness, frequent mood swings;
• feeling of "lump in the throat", difficulty in swallowing;
• hot flashes, sweating, wet palms;
• a feeling of lack of oxygen, a sudden need to take a deep breath, or vice versa - an inability to take a deep breath;
• frequent heartbeat, dizziness, darkening in the eyes;
• nausea, pain in the epigastric region or around the navel, chest pain, diarrhea;
• a feeling of muscle tension, pain in the muscles of the neck, back, lower back;
• sleep disturbances, insomnia, nightmares.

If you have any of these symptoms, you should consult a doctor.

Treatment for Anxiety Disorders

In some cases, anxiety disorder long time remains undetected and mimics other diseases. For example, the feeling of a "lump in the throat" allows one to suspect diseases. thyroid gland, lack of oxygen - asthma, etc. Patients can be treated for a long time and unsuccessfully by doctors of various specializations, not suspecting that, first of all, they need the help of a psychotherapist.

Treatment for anxiety disorders includes psychotherapy and the use of medicines to reduce anxiety levels. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is effective in identifying and eradicating the negative thought patterns that fuel anxiety—in other words, changing the way the person thinks and behaves that is causing their anxiety.

Treatment for anxiety may also require diet, lifestyle changes, and relaxation therapy, a type of therapy that involves teaching the patient to relax the muscles in the body.

Come to ON CLINIC - we have the best doctors! We will help you find a way out of any difficult life situation!

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Anxiety disorder is the most common group of mental disorders. According to statistics, an internist doctor has at least one such patient per day. Often it is these patients who fall into the category of “difficult” ones, since they turn not to a psychiatrist or psychotherapist, but to a doctor. general practice or a therapist.

anxiety disorder causes

The causes of anxiety disorders can be divided into three groups:
1) biological causes;
2) psychosocial stress;
3) behavioral mechanisms.

Social stresses and problems in interpersonal relationships play a relative role, since each person, depending on personal qualities, reacts to stressful situations that cause anxiety. The study of biological mechanisms has shown a connection with a genetic predisposition to increased anxiety. This heightened anxiety manifests itself by altering the metabolism of neurotransmitters in the brain. The following changes occur: the level of serotonin increases, the level of gamma-aminobutyric acid decreases, the level of dopamine and norepinephrine increases. Conditioned reflex mechanisms and social learning that contribute to the fixation of symptoms of anxiety disorders emphasize the role of the behavioral model of the disease.

anxiety disorder clinic

The most common anxiety disorder in medical practice is paroxysmal anxiety disorder or panic disorder. Most often, the disease is detected in 20-30 years. Manifested in the form of acute attacks of anxiety ( panic attack) and is accompanied by somatovegetative disorders. Outwardly, a panic attack does not differ from that of a healthy person at the moment of danger that threatens life. Attacks last from 5 to 30 minutes. Often the first attacks are associated with understandable reasons, but later this connection is lost, that is, anxiety becomes pathological. They also note a fairly frequent connection of paroxysmal anxiety with agoraphobia, this is due to the fear of staying in places where attacks have already occurred and help was not available (transport, shops, markets, cinemas and other places).

Criteria for a diagnosis of anxiety disorder:
1) Sudden recurring panic attacks in non-threatening situations. Or a feeling of constant anxiety due to the possibility of a recurrence of an attack.
2) The attack is accompanied by at least four of the following somatovegetative symptoms: shortness of breath, increased and rapid heartbeat, discomfort or pain in the area chest, tremor of the limbs and the whole body, increased sweating, nausea and vomiting, tingling sensation in the legs and arms (paresthesia).
3) The absence of diseases that could cause a similar condition.
4) The anxiety disorder must not be pharmacogenic, that is, it must not be caused by the use of drugs or drugs.
Patients with anxiety disorder have a high risk of suicide. Also, 20% of patients develop alcohol or drug dependence.

anxiety disorder treatment

Treatment for anxiety disorder includes both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. The main drugs for the treatment of anxiety disorder are tranquilizers (benzodiazepines) and tricyclic antidepressants. Often the first drug is alprazolam at a dose of 0.25-0.5 mg per day, in two doses, or in one if alprazolam retard is used.
Psychotherapy is mainly cognitive and behavioral, focused on the behavioral mechanisms of increased anxiety.