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Panic Articles Treatment for GAD General anxiety disorder
Panic Articles Treatment for GAD General anxiety disorder | Treatment for GAD General anxiety disorder |
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| Written by PanicJoe | |
| 22 July 2007 | |
 GAD is form of excessive worry and anxiety that is uncontrollable. It can cause people the people who suffer this disorder medical distress due to physical symptoms that accompany the worrying, such as muscle tension, lack of concentration, fatigue and restlessness. Anxiety is a component found in many other disorders, this is why GAD sometimes gets passed over by clinicians when they diagnose the cause of anxiety. However, when serious, it can be very impairing to ones lifestyle.
Treatment concentrated on medication for physical symptoms caused by chronic anxiety for the short term, and on physiological treatment parallel to it for the GAD itself.Relaxing techniques can be taught. Simple exercise and deep breathing are a first step to teach relaxation and will help most patients. Biofeedback – a method in which one can see or hear a feedback or their body’s physiological state - is a more complex tool used for more problematic patients as a means of teaching relaxation. Other techniques include progressive muscle relaxation and imagery methods. Teaching a person to relax, any place and time they wish, is a big first step to reducing low-level anxiety. This can be taught is a relatively short period of time. Treatment however tends to fail if one does not practice the relaxing techniques outside the treatment sessions. GAD patients are advised to develop a routine and to make time for practicing relaxing exercises at least twice a day for 20 minutes at a time. Longer periods are usually recommended. The patient’s inability to make such time on a regular basis can be detected early in the treatment process, when the patient does not fulfill his or her homework tasks of practicing certain relaxing exercises. Many GAD patients lead a hectic life. Helping them to better plan all their activities and find a better balance between work, home, family and friends is required to promote a cure. Helping the person realize that life will not be boring without worrying and (over) activity is also helpful to promoting recovery. It is important to make diagnosis and to differentiate GAD from social phobia. Both disorders do have a social fear component, but in GAD it is not the first cause of anxiety (as it is in social phobia). Individual treatment is the most recommended form of treatment for GAD, because it is easier to learn relaxing skills one on one, and putting a GADS patient into group therapy without those skills will not promote their progress in treatment. In fact it will cause GAD patients to terminate their treatment early. There are also many self help support groups available once the patient is indeed able to benefit from social treatment. GAD patients tend to make the most progress in an accepting therapeutical environment. Each patient may need a different form of support from his or her therapist. Listening to them and giving objective feedback to their experiences may help. Finding stress factors in their life and developing ways to handle them is beneficial. Simulations and modeling of social situations and discussion during therapy is helpful. Clinicians should not confuse the GAD patient with more specific phobias, or attempt to treat these phobias while treating GAD. It is not effective. Hypnotherapy is good for those highly suggestible. Usually it is combined with other relaxation methods. Medications should be prescribed only if the anxiety symptoms are acute. Physiological therapy and relaxation exercises are not effective when the patient is too overwhelmed by panic to concentrate on healing. When hyper-ventilating due to panic attacks it is best to try and slow down breath rate, but if this does not work, breathing into a paper bag increases Co2 intake levels and may help control the attack. The drugs mostly prescribed for anxiety are Diazepam (Valium) and Lorazepam (Ativan). These drugs belong to a class called benzodiazepines. Individuals on these medicaments should be advised as to their side effects, especially their sedating and/or drowsiness effect and their influence on performance. Tricyclic antidepressants may be a good alternative, especially for longer periods of time. Medication should be reduced gradually before treatment stops. Phillip W. Long, M.D. also notes: "Buspirone, a new nonbenzodiazepine anti-anxiety drug, is non-addictive and does not impair mechanical performance such as driving.” This drug is recommended as a second phase. After two weeks of treatment with benzodiazepines, once can be transferred to Buspirone and enjoy an improved quality of life. |
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