[A few unresolved and frequent questions concerning anxiety and anxiety disorders].
The field of anxiety disorders shows a considerable evolution in the last decades concerning the overall conceptualization of the disorders and concerning their treatment. However many questions remain open. For instance, what is the importance of anxiety disorders in terms of public health? What is their influence on other factors affecting populations' health, e.g. substance abuse, and especially smoking? Questions also remain concerning the underlying mechanisms, whether biological or psychological. For instance, is it possible to identify cognitive schemas leading to pathological anxiety? What are the physiological manifestations of the hypervigilance and hyperreactivity that are described clinically? Despite the successive classifications, some issues are unsettled concerning the delimitation of anxiety disorders. For instance, do obsessive-compulsive disorders belong to anxiety disorders or preferably to a different family of mental disorders constituting a spectrum of obsessive-compulsive disorders? Several practical issues remain open for clinicians: what is the importance of specific therapeutic factors in cognitive-behavioral therapies? Is there a psychoanalytical method and a psychopharmacological therapy specific to anxiety disorders? Concrete questions also deserve attention in relation with therapeutic modalities. Are group treatments superior to individual ones? What is the role of emotion in cognitive-behavioral treatment? Is it useful to associate self-regulation strategies like meditation? Do self-help organizations, that are numerous and helpful in that field, have a role concerning psychotherapy?
Université de Lausanne, Département Universitaire de Psychiatrie Adulte, Lausanne.
François
F
Borgeat
Daniele
D
Zullino
D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D001143:Arousal; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors