Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) both involve an exaggerated response to everyday stressors and a heightened state of anxiety or arousal that can impede concentration and daily functioning.  Both can be effectively treated with medication, including anxiolytics and antidepressants, and with therapy, the most effective of which is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).  Psychologists believe that the unpredictable nature of stressors plays a key role in the development and persistence of both disorders.  However, the response to predictable threats is believed to be normal.A study was conducted to investigate how individuals diagnosed with PTSD or GAD respond to predictable and unpredictable threats.  Twenty patients with PTSD, 20 patients with GAD, and 50 control participants took part in the study.  The groups did not differ significantly with respect to age or gender.  The study involved two conditions, each three minutes in duration.  During the first (predictable) condition, participants were shown a cue (red box) at random times while gazing through a viewing apparatus.  The cue signaled the imminent presentation of various loud noises such as thunder or screaming, meant to induce fear.  During the second (unpredictable) condition, the loud noise was presented randomly with no warning.The magnitude of the participants' startle response was measured by an eye blink reflex recorded with electrodes placed under the eyes (measured in microvolts [Table 1]).Table 1  Mean Startle Response in Microvolts by Group and ConditionPredictable UnpredictableControl 14 19PTSD 15 43GAD 18 37After the study, participants were asked to rate their subjective fear on a scale of 0 (no fear) to 10 (most fear).  The controls reported the least fear under both conditions.  PTSD participants expressed greater fear than GAD participants during the unpredictable condition, but GAD participants reported greater fear than PTSD participants during the predictable condition.C. Grillon, D. S. Pine, S. Lissek, S. Rabin, and M. Vythilingam ©2009 by Society of Biological Psychiatry. Question 16What is the main difference between GAD and PTSD?A.People with PTSD tend to hallucinate, whereas people with GAD do not.B.PTSD requires a long and consistent history of adjustment problems; GAD does not.C.PTSD requires a precipitating event to bring about the disorder; GAD does not.D.People with PTSD worry about a wide range of events; people with GAD worry about specific events.

Which of the following is NOT true about anxiety disorders?Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is involves UNREALISTIC worry about several life situations that lasts for 6 months or longer.Often anxiety and depression are mixed together.Anxiety disorders are treated with stimulant drugs.Toxic effects of stimulant drugs and withdrawal from opioids, sedatives, and alcohol (downers) also cause symptoms similar to those described in anxiety disorders.

DSM and ICD critics question whether (a) trauma/stressor-related disorders are distinct from anxiety disorders, (b) posttraumatic stressis a reaction or disorder, (c) adjustment disorder is a “wastebasket” diagnosis, and (d) prolonged grief should be a disorder.• PDM frames PTSD/complex PTSD as a relational problem in which therapists must avoid inflicting secondary trauma.• Trauma is assessed along HiTOP’s “Internalizing,” “Thought Disorder,” and “Externalizing” spectra dimensions.• As part of moving away from a medical model, PTMF prefers the term “adversity” to “trauma

The component of CBT for PTSD in which a psychologist develops a hierarchy of feared stimuli with the patient and encourages the patient to intentionally expose himself or herself to increasingly fearful stimuli is known asGroup of answer choicesimaginal exposure.emotional processing.progressive fear desensitization.in vivo exposure.

People with this disorder experience regular panic attacks, which involve sudden, overwhelming terror or a sense of imminent disaster and death.(2 Points)Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)PhobiasPanic Disorders

The American Association of Psychology has published a report on treatments for panic disorder.  Three different treatments—cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), medical drugs and a combination of the two—were used in combatting two symptoms (anxiety and depression) of this disorder, as well as in patients’ amelioration (overall improvement and quality of life). The effect size of a symptom’s reduction, or the effect size of a positive marker’s increase, were measured on a scale of 0 to 1. Given these measurements of both symptoms and progress, ______.Which choice most effective uses data from the graph to complete the statement?Choose Your AnswerPreviousNextA.It appears that CBT, more than medical drugs, affords a patient with panic disorder a feeling of overall improvement as well as an improved quality of life.B.It seems that reducing anxiety, with any treatment, is the most achievable aim.C.Results suggest that only when in combination, do drugs and CBT address depression more effectively than these treatments’ separate administration.D.There appears to be strong reason to doubt the efficacy of either CBT, drugs or their treatment in combination.