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What are anxiety disorders and how can they be treated using the behavioural approach?
This essay will attempt to define what is meant by "anxiety disorders", before going on to outline some of the major aspects of behavioural therapy, and finally to assess how effective behavioural therapy has been as a form of treatment for anxiety disorders.
The Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.) or DSM IV (1994) defines anxiety disorders as a group of disorders in which anxiety and avoidance are the main symptoms. These disorders include: Panic Disorder, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Phobic Disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and more recently, Post-traumatic-Stress Disorder (see also Davison & Neale, 1990). Given the limit placed on the word length, only the Phobic Disorders will be given as an example of an anxiety disorder. ... This is typical of Phobic Disorders (Sue, Sue, & Sue, 1994). ... ), and the behavioural symptoms associated with the feared thing (e. ... Theories of how phobias emerge vary, and include psychological models (such as the psychoanalytic perspective; behavioural ideas) as well as biological approaches (see e. ...
So what kinds of behavioural treatments are there? ...
Behavioural therapy is based on the idea that the irrational fear and maladaptive behaviour accompanying this (e. ... Three types of behavioural treatment are considered here: "systematic desensitisation", "flooding", and "modelling". ...
Systematic desensitisation is the most commonly used behavioural therapy (Wolpe, 1973). In this approach the patient is asked to formulate a "fear hierarchy" which is comprised of the most feared situation, to the least feared situation. ... This approach to treatment can take several weeks or months before the final, most fearful stage in the hierarchy is reached, but is very successful (Sue et al. ... Although they are effective, behavioural treatments have their drawbacks and limitations.
Approximate Word count = 1405
Approximate Pages = 5.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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