This drives increasingly maladaptive coping strategies and these ongoing patterns gradually spiral into an illness. One straightforward way to understand the aetiology of anxiety disorders is as a collection of positive feedback loops (Figure 1).Ĭrudely speaking, there are several ways the brain can process anxiety, but under the wrong conditions (and/or given sufficiently prolonged and intense stressors) some of these automatic patterns of thought and behaviour can, themselves, perpetuate and worsen the anxiety. ![]() You might also be interested in our medical flashcard collection which contains over 1000 flashcards that cover key medical topics. This article will begin by exploring their aetiology and challenging these assumptions. However, there remains a stigma attached to them, with assumptions that anxiety disorders indicate weakness or failure to cope with ordinary stress. The YLD (years lived with disability) burden of anxiety disorders in the UK is equivalent to that of ischaemic heart disease and asthma combined. ![]() This concept is important when understanding the aetiology of anxiety disorders: the thoughts and behavioural symptoms which characterise it (while disabling) derive from fundamental drives for self-preservation and are therefore difficult to resist.Īnxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions globally, with lifetime prevalence estimates varying from 5% to 29%. It is analogous to pain in that it is an unpleasant experience which exists to automatically motivate us to avoid harm. Anxiety can be defined as a constellation of psychological and physiological responses to a potential/uncertain threat and is an essential function of the central nervous system (CNS).
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