Anxiety Disorders: Symptoms, Social Impact, and Treatment
This paper provides a broad overview of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social anxiety disorder. It examines the physiological and psychiatric symptoms associated with these conditions, their manifestation in children and adolescents, and the social and financial burdens they impose on individuals and society. The paper also reviews medical and therapeutic treatment options, including cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacological interventions such as duloxetine, noting that physician attitudes and stigma can present barriers to effective care.
- Introduction to Anxiety Disorders: Defines and distinguishes major anxiety disorder types
- Anxiety in Children and Teens: Examines anxiety presentation and treatment in youth
- Social Impact of Anxiety Disorders: Financial, social, and stigma costs of anxiety
- Medical Treatment Options: Pharmacological and therapeutic interventions reviewed
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The paper systematically defines and distinguishes each major anxiety disorder type before moving to subpopulation and treatment analysis, providing clear conceptual scaffolding for the reader.
- It integrates peer-reviewed citations alongside public health data to support claims about prevalence and treatment efficacy, lending credibility to its overview format.
- The inclusion of a direct patient-experience quotation illustrates the lived reality of social anxiety disorder in teens, balancing clinical language with human context.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of evidence synthesis across multiple studies to build a cumulative argument about the burden of anxiety disorders. Rather than presenting each study in isolation, the author links findings across clinical, social, and financial domains to show the multidimensional impact of anxiety on individuals and healthcare systems.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a definitional introduction covering the major anxiety disorder subtypes. It then narrows its focus to children and adolescents, examining both social consequences and therapeutic responses. The third section broadens back out to societal and financial impacts, including stigma among physicians. The paper closes with a survey of pharmacological and behavioral treatment options, ending with a clinical quotation about GAD patient profiles.
Introduction to Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety is a psychological condition that presents physiological and psychiatric symptoms and has profound social impacts on the lives of those who have anxiety disorders. There are several psychological conditions considered anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. These disorders can be continuous or episodic, depending upon the manifestation of a person's symptoms.
Anxiety is a term used by the general public to describe non-pathological, "normal" responses to stressors, but the psychological disorders under the umbrella of anxiety involve experiences that interfere with an individual's ability to function and may cause extreme distress. An individual experiencing either continuous or episodic anxiety might feel physiological symptoms, including muscular tension and hyperventilation, physical symptoms including nausea and insomnia, as well as mental apprehension and panic (Healy 2009).
Panic disorder, which may affect up to six million Americans, is often characterized by the physical symptoms accompanying "sudden attacks of terror," including sweating, a pounding heart, and dizziness — sensations that can sometimes make the sufferer feel as though they are having a heart attack. Obsessive-compulsive disorder entails repeated disturbing thoughts and ritualistic behaviors that interfere with an individual's ability to function and maintain a high quality of life.
Post-traumatic stress disorder develops following an experience involving bodily harm or the threat of harm and was first widely characterized in veterans of war. Persons with PTSD are prone to being easily startled, experiencing severe and sudden anger, feeling emotionally disconnected from loved ones, and anhedonia. Social anxiety disorder is associated with a fear of being watched or judged, self-consciousness, and dread leading up to a perceived stressful event, along with physical symptoms of anxiety while that event is occurring. Finally, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a condition in which people feel a pronounced and persistent anxiety throughout the course of their day and sense the threat of an impending disaster even when there is no logical reason to anticipate such an occurrence (NIMH 2010).
Anxiety in Children and Teens
The treatment of anxiety disorders in children is an important and delicate issue. A study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology found that children with anxiety disorders are "liked less" than children who do not have anxiety disorders and suffer from a lower perceived peer status (Strauss 1987). Another study, conducted in 2004, demonstrated that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was an effective treatment for children over the age of six with anxiety disorders that did not include phobia, PTSD, or OCD. CBT is a type of psychotherapy that uses discussion and "talk therapy" to engender self-analysis of the motivations and impulses behind behaviors and reactions. Behavioral modifications can impact the way individuals, including children, process and respond to anxiety triggers. The study showed that cognitive behavioral therapy has a remission rate of 56.5% (Cartwright-Hatton 2004).
The clinical manifestations of anxiety disorders in teens and young adults appear to be similar to those found in adults. A primary difference lies in the capacity for self-directed care management, which is clearly not present in minors; teens have fewer options at their disposal to seek out treatment and medication for themselves. A medical information clearinghouse, seeking to explain the experiences of teens with generalized anxiety disorder, stated:
"When a teen with social anxiety disorder is faced with uncomfortable situations, they often experience sweating, racing heart, stomach discomfort, dizziness, and the uncontrollable urge to cry. Because their discomfort leads them to isolate and avoid certain situations, social anxiety disorder disrupts their ability to lead a normal life (Health Center 2007)."
References
Cartwright-Hatton, Sam, et al. (2004). "Systematic review of the efficacy of cognitive behaviour therapies for childhood and adolescent anxiety disorders." Vol. 43, Number 4, November, pp. 421–436.
Healy, David. (2009). Psychiatric Drugs, Explained. Churchill Livingstone Elsevier Press, pp. 136–137.
Koponen, Hannu, MD, et al. (2007). "Efficacy of Duloxetine for the Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Implications for Primary Care Physicians." Primary Care Companion: Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Vol. 9, Iss. 2, pp. 100–107.
Katzelnick, David J., MD, et al. (2002). "Impact of Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder in Managed Care." American Journal of Psychiatry. Volume 63, Supplement, pp. 24–34.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2010). Anxiety Disorders. Retrieved from
Strauss, Cyd C., et al. (1988). "Peer Social Status of Children With Anxiety Disorders." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Vol. 56, Iss. 1, pp. 137–141.
Wittchen, H.U. (2002). "Generalized anxiety and depression in primary care: prevalence, recognition, and management." Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. Vol. 63, Iss. 8, pp. 24–64.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.