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Anxiety Health Article

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Psychotherapy

Most patients with anxiety will be given some form of psychotherapy along with medication. Many patients benefit from insight-oriented therapies, which are designed to help them uncover unconscious conflicts and defense mechanisms in order to understand how their symptoms developed.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) also works well with anxious patients. In CBT, the patient is taught to identify thoughts and situations that stimulate his or her anxiety, and to view them more realistically. In the behavioral part of the program, the patient is exposed to the anxiety-provoking object, situation, or internal stimulus (like a rapid heart beat) in gradual stages until he or she is desensitized to it.

Expected results

Unfortunately, a 2002 report stated that about half of the patients with an anxiety disorder who see their primary care physician go untreated. The prognosis for resolving anxiety depends on the specific disorder and a wide variety of factors, including the patient's age, general health, living situation, belief system, social support network, and responses to different medications and forms of therapy.

BOOKS

"Anxiety Disorders." In Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th ed. Washington, DC: The American Psychiatric Association, 1994.

Bloomfield, Harold H. Healing Anxiety with Herbs. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

Corbman, Gene R. "Anxiety Disorders." In Current Diagnosis 9, edited by Rex B. Conn, et al. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1997.

PERIODICALS

Gaby, Alan R. "Consider St. John's Wort as Alternative to Kava. (Literature Review & Commentary)." Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients (May 2002):34.

Mandile, Maria Noel. "Gotu Kola: This Ayurvedic Herb May Reduce Your Anxiety Without the Side Effects of Drugs." Natural Health (May–June 2002):34.

Zoler, Michael L. "Anxiety Disorder Often Goes Untreated in Primary Care. (504 Patients in 15 Practices Studied)." Family Practice News (April 1, 2002):14 –21.