Phobic Disorder

Phobic Disorder

A phobia is an abnormal fear and avoidance of an everyday object or situation. Phobias are common (8% prevalence), disabling, and treatable with behaviour therapy.

Phobias are common conditions in which intense fear is triggered by a single stimulus, or set of stimuli, that are predictable and normally cause no particular concern to others (e.g. agoraphobia, claustrophobia, social phobia). This leads to avoidance of the stimulus The patient knows that the fear is irrational, but cannot control it. The prevalence of all phobias is 8%, with many patients having more than one. Many phobias of 'medical' stimuli exist (e.g. of doctors, dentists, hospitals, vomit, blood and injections) which affect the patient's ability to receive adequate healthcare.

Phobic anxiety disorders have the same core symptoms as generalized anxiety disorder, but these symptoms occur only in particular circumstances. In some phobic disorders , these circumstances are few and the patient is free from anxiety for most of the time. In other phobic disorders many circumstances provoke anxiety, with a result that anxiety is more frequent, but even so there are situations in which no anxiety is experienced. Two other features characterize phobic disorder: the person avoids circumstances that provoke anxiety and experiences anticipatory anxiety when there is a prospect of encountering these circumstances.

Phobic Disorder involving persistent, unrealistic, yet intense anxiety that, unlike the free-floating anxiety of panic disorder, is attached to external situations or stimuli.

Persons who have a phobia avoid such situations or stimuli or endure them only with great distress. But they retain insight and recognize the excessiveness of their anxiety.

Aetiology of Phobic Anxiety Disorders

Phobias may be caused by classical conditioning, in which a response (fear and avoidance) becomes conditioned to a previously benign stimulus (a lift) often after an initiating shock (being stuck in a lift). In children, phobias can arise through imagined threats (e.g. stories of ghosts told in the playground). Women have twice the prevalence of most phobias than men. Phobias aggregate in families, but genetic factors are probably weak.

A phobia is defined as an irrational fear that produces a conscious avoidance of the feared subject, activity, or situation. The person affected usually recognizes that the reaction is excessive. Phobic disorders can be divided into 3 types-specific phobia, social phobia, and agoraphobia.

The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) defines specific phobia as a strong, persisting fear of an object or situation, whereas social phobia is a strong, persisting fear of a situation in which embarrassment can occur. Agoraphobia is defined as the fear of being alone in public places (eg, supermarket), particularly places from which a rapid exit would be difficult in the course of a panic attack. At least three fourths of patients with agoraphobia experience panic disorder as well. Specific phobia is more common than social phobia. Examples of specific phobia include animal type, natural environment type (eg, height, water, storm), blood-injection-injury type, situational type (eg, planes, elevators, enclosed spaces), and other types.

Collectively, these disorders are the most common forms of psychiatric illness, surpassing rates of mood disorders and substance abuse. Anxiety linked to a specific object or situation is the most common feature. Severity can range from mild and unobtrusive to severe and can result in incapacity to work, travel, or interact with others. .

Anxiety Lepidopterophobia

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Phobic Disorder (anxiety disorder) - Agoraphobia, specific phobias