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The purpose of this paper is to investigate peer perceptions and stereotypes towards adolescents with clinical anxiety disorders.

The study utilised an exploratory qualitative design, using short vignettes to investigate perceptions of three clinical anxiety disorders (panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder) and a control scenario, situational stress. Responses were analysed using thematic analysis.

The results of the study suggest that previously established mental illness stereotypes (e.g. fear and dangerousness) may not be relevant to those with anxiety disorders, with perceptions of personal responsibility, weakness and social abnormality salient instead. These results suggest that stigma interventions should be tailored to disorder and age group.

Perceptions of weakness and blame have been associated with higher levels of discrimination, meaning people with anxiety disorders may be particularly vulnerable. Similarly, the negative social perceptions may be particularly damaging in adolescence, when successful peer relationships are vitally important. The results suggest specific stereotypes to target in stigma reduction campaigns for anxiety disorders, which may not being addressed by existing interventions.

There is a significant lack of research on both adolescent mental illness stigma in general, and anxiety stigma specifically. This study aimed to begin to address that gap, and found results that suggest, in line with previous work, that perceptions of blame may be more common for anxiety disorders, with negative social perceptions also reflecting the unique importance of peer relationships for adolescents. Further research should explore these stereotypes in more detail.

Improving mental health literacy is an important consideration when promoting expedient and effective treatment seeking for psychological disorders. Low recognition serves as a barrier to treatment and the purpose of this paper is to examine recognition by lay individuals of severity for three psychological disorders: social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and major depression using a dimensional approach.

Vignettes of mild/subclinical, moderate, and severe cases of each disorder were rated for severity by a team of expert assessors and 270 participants (mean age=26.8; 76.7 percent women).

Difference ratings were calculated comparing participants’ responses to scores from the assessors. A within-groups factorial ANOVA with LSD follow-up was performed to examine the effects of Diagnosis and Severity on difference ratings. Both main effects (Diagnosis, F(2, 536)=35.26, Mse=1.24; Severity, F(2, 536)=9.44, Mse=1.93) and the interaction were significant (F(4, 1,072)=13.70, Mse=1.13) all p’s < 0.001. Social anxiety cases were under-rated in the mild/subclinical and moderate cases, generalized anxiety cases were under-rated at all three severities, and major depression cases were over-rated at all three severities.

Judgments of severity may underlie the low recognition rates for social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Future efforts should focus on improved recognition and education regarding anxiety disorders in the population, particularly before they become severe.

This project demonstrates the importance of considering judgments of symptom severity on a continuum, and in a range of cases, rather than just the ability to correctly label symptoms, when determining whether or not people recognize psychological disorders.

Although social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common mental disorder, it is often under diagnosed and under treated. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence, severity, disability, and quality of life towards SAD among students of Jazan University, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among a stratified sample of 500 undergraduate students to identify the prevalence of SAD, its correlates, related disability, and its impact on the quality life. All participants completed the Social Phobia Inventory, Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Sheehan Disability Scale, and the WHO Quality of Life – BREF questionnaire. Of 476 students, 25.8% were screened positive for SAD. About 47.2% of the students had mild symptoms, 42.3% had moderate to marked symptoms, and 10.5% had severe to very severe symptoms of SAD. Students who resulted positive for SAD reported significant disabilities in work, social, and family areas, and this has adversely affected their quality of life as compared to those who screened negative for SAD. Students reported several clinical manifestations that affected their functioning and social life. Acting, performing or giving a talk in front of an audience was the most commonly feared situation. Blushing in front of people was the most commonly avoided situation. Since the present study showed a marked prevalence of SAD among students, increased disability, and impaired quality of life, rigorous efforts are needed for early recognition and treatment of SAD.

This chapter explores how direct-to-consumer advertisements (DTCA) for major depression and anxiety disorders use contemporary gender scripts to sell medications and disease definitions to consumers, and in the process reflect and reinforce those scripts for both men and women. Between 1997 and 2006, antidepressant DTCA in popular magazines overwhelmingly depicted depression as a (white) female disorder, as did anti-anxiety DTCA, although not to such an extreme extent. In addition, DTCA often alerted men to the benefits they might reap if the women in their lives sought treatment, while suggesting that women had a responsibility to seek such treatment for the sake of their loved ones. Moreover, DTCA disproportionately encouraged women to monitor their emotions while encouraging men to monitor their physical sensations. Finally, DTCA suggested that medication would yield benefits for women primarily in their close relationships and for men primarily in their work lives, thus reinforcing the binary sex divisions implicit in hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity. At a broader level, DTCA studied for this article suggest to both women and men that individuals should monitor themselves and others for a wide variety of common emotions, behaviors, and physical sensations, thus individualizing social problems and encouraging the expansion of medical authority over everyday life.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects both civilian and military populations following wartime experiences. However, despite an abundance of research investigating civilian and military populations separately, much less focus has been given to synthesizing and integrating findings to describe how civilian and military war survivors are comparatively affected by PTSD. This review is broken down into three sections covering (1) risk factors associated with PTSD, (2) relationships between PTSD and mental health outcomes, and (3) protective factors that can attenuate PTSD and its effects. Each section covers findings for civilians and military personnel and highlights similarities and differences between groups.

Metacognitive beliefs and processes have been found to perpetuate anxiety and depression in youth and adults. However, the presence of metacognitive beliefs in children with autism spectrum disorder is somewhat unclear and has received limited research attention to date. The purpose of this paper is to explore metacognitive beliefs in children with autism and associations with anxiety and depression.

In total, 23 high functioning participants (17 male and 6 female) between the ages of 8 and 12 (M=10.38) diagnosed on the autism spectrum completed the study. Participants completed the Revised Children’s Scale of Anxiety and Depression and the Metacognitions Questionnaire for Children.

Correlation analyses revealed that positive and negative metacognitive beliefs were found, as hypothesised, to be prevalent in this sample.

Despite methodological limitations, this is one of the first research evaluations to provide evidence for metacognitive beliefs in high functioning children with autism and comorbid anxiety or low mood.

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) in the treatment of social anxiety with a 19-year-old man with intellectual disabilities (ID) and autistic spectrum disorders.

The intervention was evaluated using an A-B single case design. An idiosyncratic measure was developed to measure anxiety symptoms on a daily basis. The brief symptom inventory (BSI; Derogatis, 1975) measured symptom patterns across nine psychological dimensions and was administered at initial assessment, pre-intervention and post-intervention.

Visual and statistical analysis of the data showed that anxiety severity dramatically reduced throughout the course of therapy, reaching and maintaining zero and this was statistically significant. Data seemed to show that sudden gains in the reduction of anxiety severity occurred during the relaxation and cognitive phases of intervention. This sudden gain coincided with an increase in daily activities, and exposure to more anxiety provoking events which was also statistically significant. Global anxiety scores, as measured by the BSI, showed a notable reduction at post-treatment.

This paper demonstrates that CBT can bring about meaningful improvements in the treatment of anxiety in people with ID and autism and suggests that further exploration with the wider population is needed.

Social anxiety disorder is a common phenomenon that occurs in everyone with varying degrees, ranging from mild to severe. One of the causes of social anxiety disorder is a traumatic experience due to sexual harassment that has been experienced. In deaf women, this experience is made more difficult because of the language and speech limitations shared. As a result, irrational thoughts and beliefs arise for the victim. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the Bisindo-based rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) model in reducing social anxiety in deaf women who are victims of sexual harassment.

The research method uses single-subject research with multiple baselines across subjects. The research subjects were deaf women victims of sexual harassment who the National Government Organization Woman Crises Center in West Sumatra and the Association of Indonesian Special Education Professionals identified. Data were collected by observation and social anxiety scale and analyzed by graphical visual analysis.

The results showed that the Bisindo-based REBT was effective in reducing social anxiety in deaf women who were victims of sexual harassment.

The implementation of therapy in this study involved therapists, teachers and sign language interpreters. It requires extraordinary time and effort for the subjects to be able to reveal the sexual harassment they experienced. Furthermore, the small number of subjects meant that the results of this study could not be generalized widely. Therefore, this study has implications for future researchers to conduct experiments using the Bisindo-based REBT model on more subjects.

Practically, the results of this study have implications for a model for handling cases of sexual harassment in deaf women that can be used by women’s organizations and the Indonesian Association of Women with Disabilities.

It is recommended for counselors, psychologists and therapists to use the Bisindo-based REBT in dealing with cases of sexual harassment in deaf women because therapy that follows the characteristics of the victim’s language can help them to get the expected results.

This study aims to evaluate the effect of Alpha-Stim Anxiety, Insomnia and Depression (AID) cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) on anxiety, depression and health-related quality of life for primary care social prescribing service patients with anxiety symptoms.

Open-label patient cohort design with no control group. A total of 33 adult patients (average age 42 years) completed six weeks of Alpha-Stim AID use. Pre- and post-intervention assessment with participant self-report measures: Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and European Quality of Life Five Dimension (EQ-5D-5L).

Reliable improvement and remission rates, respectively, were 53.39% and 33.3% for GAD-7; 46.7% and 29.5% for PHQ-9. There was a significant improvement in GAD-7 and PHQ-9 with large effect sizes. EQ-5D-5L results showed significant improvements in health-related quality of life. Perceived quality of life increased by 0.17 on the health index score, with the intervention adding 1.68 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs).

Alpha-Stim AID can be delivered through a primary health-care social prescribing service and most patients will use as prescribed and complete treatment course. Alpha-Stim AID CES may be an effective anxiety and depression treatment for people with anxiety symptoms. The widespread roll-out of Alpha-Stim AID in health-care systems should be considered.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to respond to the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care (NICE) request for the collection of real-world data to understand better Alpha-Stim AID in relation to people’s treatment uptake, response rates and treatment completion rates (NICE, 2021).