Today's show is about how to diagnose a phobia, with Dr. Kate Baker of the University of Michigan. In two weeks, we will be back with a second episode on treatment of phobias.
This episode may be most helpful for pre-clinical and clinical students, as well as residents early in their training.
In today's episode we cover:
- Specific phobias (like fear of flying, fear of getting an injection)
- Social phobia (also known as social anxiety disorder), which can include things like fear of public speaking
- Agoraphobia
- Fear neurocircuitry
Specific Phobia criteria:
- intense anxiety, almost always provoked by stimulus
- avoidance / endured with intense anxiety
- anxiety out of proportion to actual danger
- clinical distress or impairment (social, occupational, etc)
- duration over 6 months
- not better explained by another disorder
Social phobia: one additional criterion to the specific phobia criteria is: individual fears that he/she will act in a way or show anxiety symptoms that will be negatively evaluated, such as being rejected or embarrassed.
Agoraphobia:
The additional criterion to specific phobia is two or more of the following:
Fear of:
- using public transportation
- being in open spaces
- being in enclosed spaces
- being in a crowd or line
- being outside the home alone
Basic steps of neurocircuitry:
1. signal of danger/trauma inputted into brain
2. brain puts context around this information
3. if brain interpretation is of concern, then fight/flight activated.
Key brain structure in the fear response is the amygdala.
Resources:
You may find it helpful to review fear neurocircuitry from the National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative website.
