PHOBIA. What is it?

What Is a Phobia?
A phobia is defined as the unrelenting fear of a situation, activity, or thing that causes one to want to avoid it. Women tend to be twice as likely to suffer from a phobia compared to men.

Different Types of Phobias?

There are several types of phobias, including social, situational, animal, and specific phobias (fear of particular items or objects). While the list of phobias is almost endless, we'll take a look at some of the most common phobias on the next slides.

Phobia - dx
Q. DSM-IV-TR, list five criteria for specific phobia in adults, what are they?

Phobia dx - 1
Ans. 1. Excessive and persistent fear, cued by an object or situation. 2. Exposure to the object or situation causes anxiety response. 3. Pt recognizes the fear is unreasonable. see next slide

phobia dx - 2
4. The phobic situation is avoided or endured with intense distress. 5. [usually DSM expectation that] causes dysfunction or distress.

Phobic Disorders
1. 2. 3. Phobias Specific phobias Social phobia Agoraphobia

Specific Phobias

Social Phobia
Also known as social anxiety disorder, social phobia is an excessive fear of embarrassment in social situations. Examples include fears of public speaking, meeting new people, and other social situations.

Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is a fear of in a situation from which one either cannot escape or from which escaping would be difficult or humiliating. Although agoraphobia, like other mental disorders, it also tends to run in families and for some people, may have a clear genetic factor.

Claustrophobia
Claustrophobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of closed spaces, as in elevators, tunnels, or any other confined space. This type of fear is excessive and quite common.

Zoophobia
Zoophobia is a term that encompasses fears of specific types of animals such as spiders (arachnophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia), birds (ornithophobia), bees (apiphobia), etc.

Acrophobia
Acrophobia is an abnormally excessive and persistent fear of heights.

Aerophobia
An abnormal and persistent fear of flying is called aerophobia. This phobia generally develops after a person witnesses a plane crash or loses a family member in a plane crash or accident.

Blood-Injection-Injury Phobias
Blood-injection-injury phobias consist of several specific phobias including fear of blood (hemophobia), injury phobia, and fear of receiving an injection (trypanophobia or aichmophobia).

Effects of Phobias
If left untreated, a phobia may worsen to the point at which the person's life is seriously affected. There may be periods of spontaneous improvement, but a phobia does not usually go away unless the person receives treatments. Alcoholics can be up to 10 times more likely to suffer.

Causes and Risk Factors for Phobias

it is thought that phobias run in families, or can be triggered by life events. Phobia sufferers have been found to be more likely to manage stress by avoiding the stressful situation and by having difficulty minimizing the intensity of the fearful situation.

Signs and Symptoms of Phobias

Symptoms of phobias often involve having a panic attack as well as physical symptoms like shaking, sweating, rapid heartbeat, trouble breathing, and an overwhelming desire to escape the situation.

How Are Phobias evaluated?

Many health-care providers may help diagnose phobias specialists whom you see for a medical condition, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. you may need to submit to a medical interview and physical examination. A phobia may be associated with a number of other mental -health conditions, especially other anxiety disorders. Routine laboratory tests are often performed during the initial evaluation to rule out other possible causes of the symptoms.

Treatment of Phobias
Exposing them to circumstances that are increasingly close to the one they are phobic. A second method is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps in changing the way of thinking of the sufferer.

Three techniques to accomplish this goal:

Didactic component: This phase helps to set up positive expectations for therapy and promote the phobia sufferer's cooperation. Cognitive component: It helps to identify the thoughts and assumptions that influence the person's behavior. Behavioral component: This employs behaviormodifying techniques to teach the individual with a phobia more effective strategies for dealing with problems.

Medications to Treat Phobias

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medications are often used to treat phobias. These medications affect levels of serotonin in the brain. Examples of these medications include fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), paroxetine (Paxil), fluvoxamine (Luvox), citalopram (Celexa), and escitalopram (Lexapro).