Treatments for anxiety disorders include psychological treatments and the administration of medication. Psychological treatments often include exposure methods such as virtual reality or in vivo exposure, cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation treatments, and other cognitive behavior models. The use of anxiolytics is also often involved in the treatment plans of anxiety disorders and prescribe either antidepressants or benzodiazepines.
The commonalities across psychological treatments include exposure, virtual reality vs. in vivo exposure which are equally effective, and mindfulness and acceptance treatments. Exposure is facing the situation or object that triggers anxiety that is effective for 70-90% of clients. The behavioral view of exposure is newly learned associations inhibit fear and the cognitive view is that exposure corrects mistaken beliefs. Psychological treatments of specific anxiety disorders typically include exposure methods, cognitive behavioral therapy, and medications. Expose methods such as virtual reality or in vivo are helpful when treating phobias or agoraphobia. Cognitive behavioral therapy is useful for treating social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. The psychological treatment of phobias is exposure. In vivo exposure is used for phobias involving fear of animals, injections, or dental work and uses very brief treatments lasting only a couple of hours that have been found to be highly effective. Most people experience relied from phobic symptoms. The psychological treatment of social anxiety disorder includes CBT for social anxiety, social skills training, and Clark’s cognitive therapy for social anxiety. CBT uses graded hierarchy of exposure and involves role playing or practicing with a small group. Social skills training provides extensive modeling of behaviors and reduces the use of safety behaviors. Clark’s cognitive therapy reduces internal focus of attention and challenges negative images of how others will react. The psychological treatment for panic disorder is CBT that is used to understand and control anxiety and panic disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on changing negative thoughts in more manageable thoughts that result in less anxiety and the likelihood of a panic attack. Rational emotive behavior therapy, panic-focused psychodynamic therapy, group therapy, and couples or family therapy are also used to treat panic disorder. The psychological treatment of agoraphobia is CBT for agoraphobia that includes systematic exposure to feared situations, being coached to gradually leave home and engage in common activities for short periods of time, and enhancement by involving the patient’s partner who may have helped enable the patient’s fears. The psychological treatment of GAD includes relaxation training to promote calmness and cognitive behavioral methods such as improving problem-solving, challenging and modifying negative thoughts, increasing the ability to tolerate uncertainty, worrying only during “scheduled” time, and focusing on the present moment.
This research article targeted the recent global approach to neuro-pathogenesis, drug treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, and their implications of anxiety disorders. As there is a multitude of increasing anxiety disorders, the treatments for these disorders must be further explored. The purpose of this article was to research new global treatment approaches for anxiety disorders. This meta-analysis addressed the lack of treatment and diagnoses that are aimed towards anxiety disorders as well as how many known disorders there are that are overlooked for treatment. The two primary noted treatments in this article for anxiety disorders were cognitive behavioral therapy and the use of drugs. Various treatments are needed for anxiety disorders as they are caused by environmental, biological, biochemical, genetic, and autonomic factors.
Abubakar, A. R., Sani, I. H., Malami, S., Yaro, A. H., Jahan, I., Adnan, N., Kumar, S., Islam, S., Dutta, S., Charan, J., & Haque, M. (2021). Anxiety disorders: recent global approach to neuro-pathogenesis, drug treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, and their implications. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science, 20(3), 487–503. https://doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v20i3.52790