Diagnosing Anxiety Disorders

This course defines both fear and anxiety in the context of a normal response to those stimuli which warn us of danger, and an excessive response, which is maladaptive. Differentiated by the types of fear, ranges of severity, and types of onset, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorder; they are often co-morbid with other psychiatric disorders. After explaining the respective DSM and ICD codes for anxiety disorders, the video gives a synopsis of each of the chief types of anxiety disorders and also panic attacks, which are not a codable disorder, but whose symptoms help clinicians understand all anxiety disorders better. The disorders examined include: panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, selective mutism, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, and generalised anxiety disorder. Differential diagnosis is briefly discussed, with examples of how other disorders - such as acute stress disorder or PTSD - may be differentiated from patients with anxiety. <p>&nbsp;</p> <b>DSM-5-TR update:</b> While this video discusses mental conditions in terms of how the diagnosis would be treated in the DSM-5, the current iteration of the DSM is the DSM-5-TR. However, the clinical material discussed in this video is still current.