Introduction Advances in the Treatment of Mood and Anxiety Disorders

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (S4) ◽  
pp. 5-5
Author(s):  
Charles B. Nemeroff ◽  
Mark H.B. Radford ◽  
Robert N. Golden

Mood and anxiety disorders are prevalent in all countries and cultures, which becomes obvious when standardized diagnostic and evaluation techniques are utilized. It is estimated that ~450 million people worldwide suffer from psychiatric illness. In the United States alone, epidemiologic research has identified that tens of millions of Americans suffer from major depressive disorder (MDD) annually, with many of them being in the prime of their adult lives. In addition to medical, personal, and social costs, depression is also believed to have a significant impact on work productivity. Further epidemiologic research indicates that nearly half of all individuals meeting lifetime criteria for MDD also have met criteria for a comorbid anxiety disorder. With an average age of 16 years for the onset of any lifetime anxiety disorder, anxiety disorders appear to predispose affected individuals to a substantial lifetime risk for MDD. In order to improve outcomes in depression and anxiety disorders, clinicians must enhance the entire process of recognition, diagnosis, and treatment.

2021 ◽  
pp. 326-332
Author(s):  
Ahmed T. Makhlouf

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric syndromes in the United States. About 29% of adults will receive a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder during their lifetime, and almost one-fifth of adults have symptoms of anxiety in any given year. Globally, anxiety disorders are responsible for 10% of the disability-adjusted life years for all psychiatric and neurologic disorders, second only to major depressive disorder.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hellen Keller

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), “Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year.”Although anxiety and depression are separate conditions, many people who suffer with depression also have anxiety or vice versa. The ADAA states, “Nearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.” A Psychology Today article also points out the fact that researchers and doctors have been shifting toward a new conclusion about the disorders, stating, “Depression and anxiety are not two disorders that coexist. They are two faces of one disorder.”


1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 700-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Rodney ◽  
Nigel Prior ◽  
Betty Cooper ◽  
Mike Theodoros ◽  
Joanne Browning ◽  
...  

Objective: This study explored the effect of comohid anxiety disorders in patients admitted to an inpatient specialist Mood Disorders Unit for the treatment of a primary major depressive episode. Method: Subjects were assessed on admission and discharge. DSM-Ill-R diagnoses for major depression and anxiety disorders were established using CIDI-Auto; cornorbid anxiety disorders were coexistent in time with the major depression, with both conditions meeting diagnostic criteria at the time of assessment. Severity of illness was assessed using the Hamilton DepressiodMelancholia Scale, the revised Hamilton Anxiety Scale and the revised Beck Depression Inventory. Results: For the analysis, the study cohort was divided into three groups: depression alone (n = 33), one comorbid anxiety disorder (n = 15), and two or more comorbid anxiety disorders (n = 24). No particular anxiety disorder predominated. Interestingly, the presence or absence of comorbid anxiety with severe major depression made no significant difference to treatment choice or outcome results. Specifically, there was no significant difference between the three groups in the utilisation of electroconvulsive therapy and pharmacotherapy (including antidepres-sants, benzodiazepines and neuroleptics); all subjects improved significantly on both depression and anxiety ratings, and length of inpatient stay did not vary significantly between the three groups. Conclusions: The existence of comorbid anxiety disorders in those patients who presented for treatment of a primary major depressive episode did not significantly effect choice of treatment or treatment outcome, suggesting that there is a close interrelationship between the two conditions.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (S4) ◽  
pp. 6-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark H.B. Radford

AbstractAccurate comparisons of the prevalence of psychiatric disorders across Eastern and Western cultures are difficult and limited by methodological problems. Nevertheless, using standardized diagnostic and evaluation techniques, recent surveys have suggested that depression and anxiety disorders exist in all countries and cultures examined thus far, although variations in the prevalence rates and symptomatology may exist. This article discusses the influence and impact that culture can have on recognizing and treating mood and anxiety disorders, with a particular focus on Japan. Over the last 20 years, studies have consistently reported an increase in mental illness in Japan, especially symptoms of depression and anxiety. While such symptoms have had an adaptive cultural role in the past, current social and economic changes in Japan have turned any adaptive advantage into a potentially significant disadvantage, with a major impact on the capacity of individuals to function adequately. The situation is compounded by the fact that Japanese patients are reluctant to openly discuss disturbances of mood, since these are considered to be indicative of personal weakness rather than treatable medical conditions. Reluctance to discuss personal mental health hinders timely recognition and appropriate treatment.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon E Grant

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders among adults in the United States. Although anxiety disorders generally result in significant psychosocial impairment, most adults do not seek treatment until many years after the onset of the anxiety disorder. The treatment literature for anxiety disorder has grown tremendously since the 1980s, and both psychotherapy and medications may prove beneficial for people with anxiety disorders. This review presents a general overview of the anxiety disorders. This review contains 7 tables, and 33 references. Key words: agoraphobia, anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobia, treatment of anxiety


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 493-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renee D. Goodwin ◽  
Melanie M. Wall ◽  
Tse Choo ◽  
Sandro Galea ◽  
Jonathan Horowitz ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica S Jarmasz ◽  
Alexandrea Anderson ◽  
Margaret E Bock ◽  
Yan Jin ◽  
Peter A Cattini ◽  
...  

Abstract BACKGROUND: Pregnant women with obesity are at increased risk for peripartum depression. Maternal obesity is also associated with reduced human placental lactogen (hPL) levels, and decreased hPL transcripts were reported in women with clinical depression. In addition, hPL production may be rescued in women with obesity that were subsequently diagnosed with gestational diabetes and treated with insulin (INS). Objective: Study the effect of INS treatment in pregnancy on the risk for postpartum psychological distress (PPD) in women with and without obesity. Study Design: Using data housed at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (2002–2017), cohorts of women (ages 15+) with a single live birth with and without obesity were developed using weight (≥85 and <65.6 kg, respectively) and an average (1.63 m) height. Pre-existing mood and anxiety disorders within 5 years preceding delivery as well as gestational hypertension were excluded. After randomly selecting 1 birth per mother, cohorts were stratified by INS treatment during the gestational period. The risk of PPD within 1 year of delivery was assessed by Poisson regression analysis. Models were adjusted for maternal age and area-level income at delivery. Results: The risk of PPD was 27% greater among women with obesity versus without (adjusted rate ratio (aRR)=1.27, 95% CI 1.16–1.4, p<0.0001). However, women with obesity treated with INS did not have a significantly different risk of PPD compared to women without obesity whether treated with INS (aRR=0.99, 95%CI 0.48–2.02, p=0.974) or not (aRR=1.16, 95%CI 0.86–1.56, p=0.328). This suggests that the risk of PPD among women with obesity may be reduced by INS treatment; however, our ability to detect a significant difference may be limited by small cohort numbers (46 women with obesity received INS in pregnancy) or confounders for receiving INS in pregnancy. Direct comparison of INS treatment within weight groups faced the same limitations but trended toward a reduction in women with obesity who received INS (aRR=0.91, 95%CI 0.68–1.22, p=0.531). The positive association between INS treatment in pregnancy and decreased risk of PPD in women with obesity was lost when pre-existing mood and anxiety disorder was not excluded. Inclusion of pre-existing diabetes in the adjusted models did not improve model fit or contribute significantly to the differences in PPD rates. Conclusions: Maternal obesity increases the risk for PPD but this risk may be reduced by gestational INS treatment in the absence of a pre-existing mood and anxiety disorders. This correlates with the decrease and increase in hPL levels reported previously with maternal obesity without and with INS treatment (for diabetes) in pregnancy, respectively. Thus, hPL levels may serve as a possible indicator of PPD risk and a potential target for gestational INS treatment.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Schoevers ◽  
C. D. van Borkulo ◽  
F. Lamers ◽  
M.N. Servaas ◽  
J. A. Bastiaansen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background There is increasing interest in day-to-day affect fluctuations of patients with depressive and anxiety disorders. Few studies have compared repeated assessments of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) across diagnostic groups, and fluctuation patterns were not uniformly defined. The aim of this study is to compare affect fluctuations in patients with a current episode of depressive or anxiety disorder, in remitted patients and in controls, using affect instability as a core concept but also describing other measures of variability and adjusting for possible confounders. Methods Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data were obtained from 365 participants of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety with current (n = 95), remitted (n = 178) or no (n = 92) DSM-IV defined depression/anxiety disorder. For 2 weeks, five times per day, participants filled-out items on PA and NA. Affect instability was calculated as the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD). Tests on group differences in RMSSD, within-person variance, and autocorrelation were performed, controlling for mean affect levels. Results Current depression/anxiety patients had the highest affect instability in both PA and NA, followed by remitters and then controls. Instability differences between groups remained significant when controlling for mean affect levels, but differences between current and remitted were no longer significant. Conclusions Patients with a current disorder have higher instability of NA and PA than remitted patients and controls. Especially with regard to NA, this could be interpreted as patients with a current disorder being more sensitive to internal and external stressors and having suboptimal affect regulation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Claudia C. de Ornelas Maia ◽  
Arthur Azevedo Braga ◽  
Cristiane Aparecida Nunes ◽  
Antonio Egidio Nardi ◽  
Adriana Cardoso Silva

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a unified cognitive-behavioral therapy protocol for group treatment of patients with a range of comorbid mood and anxiety disorders. METHODS: In this open-trial study, the unified protocol was followed for the psychotherapeutic treatment of 16 patients with comorbid mood and anxiety disorders, confirmed by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories, the World Health Organization Quality of Life evaluation instrument, and the ARIZONA scale of sexual function were used to evaluate progress in patients throughout the therapeutic process. RESULTS: All patients showed unipolar depressive disorder. Comorbidity with anxiety disorders was distributed as follows: generalized anxiety disorder, 13 (81.3%); panic disorder, 3 (18.8%); social anxiety disorder, 1 (6.3%); and post-traumatic stress disorder, 1 (6.3%). Improvement was observed in the signs and symptoms of depression (F = 78.62, p < 0.001) and anxiety (F = 19.64, p < 0.001), overall quality of life (F = 39.72, p < 0.001), physical domain (F = 28.15, p < 0.001)), psychological variables (F = 9.90, p = 0.007), social functioning (F = 36.86, p < 0.001), environmental variables (F = 27.63, p < 0.001), and sexuality (F = 13.13; p < 0.005). All parameters showed highly significant correlations (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: An effort to establish one unified treatment protocol for a whole family of emotional disorders (primarily mood and anxiety disorders) showed benefits in the field of clinical psychology and for the treatment of patients. No other data were found in the literature describing the implementation of the unified protocol in a transdiagnostic group. Our results revealed statistically significant improvement in all variables, suggesting that the protocol proposed can become an important tool to improve quality of life, sexuality, and anxiety/depression symptoms in patients with different diagnoses.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document