The Effects of Exercise Training on Anxiety

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 388-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Herring ◽  
Jacob B. Lindheimer ◽  
Patrick J. O’Connor

This review summarizes the extant evidence of the effects of exercise training on anxiety among healthy adults, adults with a chronic illness, and individuals diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. A brief discussion of selected proposed mechanisms that may underlie relations of exercise and anxiety is also provided. The weight of the available empirical evidence indicates that exercise training reduces symptoms of anxiety among healthy adults, chronically ill patients, and patients with panic disorder. Preliminary data suggest that exercise training can serve as an alternative therapy for patients with social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive–compulsive disorder. Anxiety reductions appear to be comparable to empirically supported treatments for panic and generalized anxiety disorders. Large trials aimed at more precisely determining the magnitude and generalizability of exercise training effects appear to be warranted for panic and generalized anxiety disorders. Future well-designed randomized controlled trials should (a) examine the therapeutic effects of exercise training among understudied anxiety disorders, including specific phobias, social anxiety disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder; (b) focus on understudied exercise modalities, including resistance exercise training and programs that combine exercise with cognitive-behavioral therapies; and (c) elucidate putative mechanisms of the anxiolytic effects of exercise training.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shona Vas ◽  
Pooja N Dave

Anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive fear and anxiety accompanied by associated behavioral disturbances that cause significant impairment in social and occupational functioning. Anxiety is a complex mood state that involves physiologic, cognitive, and behavioral components. This review describes the five anxiety disorders most commonly diagnosed in adults: social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and specific phobia. Diagnostic criteria for these disorders are presented along with empirically supported psychological and pharmacologic treatment approaches. Decades of evidence have indicated that for anxiety disorders of mild to moderate severity, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) should be first-line treatment. CBT interventions for anxiety, including psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, exposure, applied relaxation/breathing retraining, and skills training, are presented with descriptions of how they may be adapted to particular diagnoses, along with data for their efficacy. Data suggest that selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are pharmacologic treatments of choice for anxiety and may be used in combination with CBT for moderate to severe symptoms. d-Cycloserine is an emerging treatment that may enhance outcomes in anxiety disorders by optimizing exposure therapy through the facilitation of fear extinction. This review contains 7 figures, 12 tables, and 105 references. Key words: agoraphobia, anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shona Vas ◽  
Pooja N Dave

Anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive fear and anxiety accompanied by associated behavioral disturbances that cause significant impairment in social and occupational functioning. Anxiety is a complex mood state that involves physiologic, cognitive, and behavioral components. This review describes the five anxiety disorders most commonly diagnosed in adults: social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and specific phobia. Diagnostic criteria for these disorders are presented along with empirically supported psychological and pharmacologic treatment approaches. Decades of evidence have indicated that for anxiety disorders of mild to moderate severity, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) should be first-line treatment. CBT interventions for anxiety, including psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, exposure, applied relaxation/breathing retraining, and skills training, are presented with descriptions of how they may be adapted to particular diagnoses, along with data for their efficacy. Data suggest that selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are pharmacologic treatments of choice for anxiety and may be used in combination with CBT for moderate to severe symptoms. d-Cycloserine is an emerging treatment that may enhance outcomes in anxiety disorders by optimizing exposure therapy through the facilitation of fear extinction. This review contains 7 figures, 12 tables, and 105 references. Key words: agoraphobia, anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder


Author(s):  
John C. Markowitz

This omnibus chapter covers anxiety disorders and other psychiatric disorders that may arise or be aggravated by the pandemic. Some anxiety is of course warranted in the midst of a crisis of ongoing risk and uncertainty; therapist and patient must try to separate appropriate from symptomatic anxiety. The chapter includes a discussion of prior IPT research for these disorders, appropriate IPT adaptations, and extended, detailed case examples illustrating the application of IPT to panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety disorder. It also addresses how the pandemic may trigger or exacerbate other diagnoses for which IPT has shown benefit.


Author(s):  
Markus Dold ◽  
Siegfried Kasper

Chapter 7 summarizes the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and evidence for pharmacological treatment options of generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, specific phobia, and social anxiety disorder. With regard to the pharmacological management, serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) represent the well-established first-line medication for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, agoraphobia, and social anxiety disorder. In GAD, also the calcium channel modulator pregabalin can be regarded as evidence-based treatment option. In simple cases of specific phobia, however, the initiation of a pharmacotherapy is not recognized as standard treatment according to international treatment guidelines and psychotherapeutic interventions should be preferred. Besides illustrating the pharmacological treatment options, we described the actualized diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorders established in the newly introduced fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shona Vas ◽  
Pooja N Dave

Anxiety disorders are characterized by excessive fear and anxiety accompanied by associated behavioral disturbances that cause significant impairment in social and occupational functioning. Anxiety is a complex mood state that involves physiologic, cognitive, and behavioral components. This review describes the five anxiety disorders most commonly diagnosed in adults: social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and specific phobia. Diagnostic criteria for these disorders are presented along with empirically supported psychological and pharmacologic treatment approaches. Decades of evidence have indicated that for anxiety disorders of mild to moderate severity, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) should be first-line treatment. CBT interventions for anxiety, including psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, exposure, applied relaxation/breathing retraining, and skills training, are presented with descriptions of how they may be adapted to particular diagnoses, along with data for their efficacy. Data suggest that selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are pharmacologic treatments of choice for anxiety and may be used in combination with CBT for moderate to severe symptoms. d-Cycloserine is an emerging treatment that may enhance outcomes in anxiety disorders by optimizing exposure therapy through the facilitation of fear extinction. This review contains 7 figures, 12 tables, and 105 references. Key words: agoraphobia, anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávia Paes ◽  
Tathiana Baczynski ◽  
Felipe Novaes ◽  
Tamires Marinho ◽  
Oscar Arias-Carrión ◽  
...  

Objectives: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common and debilitating anxiety disorders. However, few studies had been dedicated to the neurobiology underlying SAD until the last decade. Rates of non-responders to standard methods of treatment remain unsatisfactorily high of approximately 25%, including SAD. Advances in our understanding of SAD could lead to new treatment strategies. A potential non invasive therapeutic option is repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Thus, we reported two cases of SAD treated with rTMS Methods: The bibliographical search used Pubmed/Medline, ISI Web of Knowledge and Scielo databases. The terms chosen for the search were: anxiety disorders, neuroimaging, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Results: In most of the studies conducted on anxiety disorders, except SAD, the right prefrontal cortex (PFC), more specifically dorsolateral PFC was stimulated, with marked results when applying high-rTMS compared with studies stimulating the opposite side. However, according to the “valence hypothesis”, anxiety disorders might be characterized by an interhemispheric imbalance associated with increased right-hemispheric activity. With regard to the two cases treated with rTMS, we found a decrease in BDI, BAI and LSAS scores from baseline to follow-up. Conclusion: We hypothesize that the application of low-rTMS over the right medial PFC (mPFC; the main structure involved in SAD circuitry) combined with high-rTMS over the left mPFC, for at least 4 weeks on consecutive weekdays, may induce a balance in brain activity, opening an attractive therapeutic option for the treatment of SAD.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document