Diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders, obsessive disorders: What you need to know

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted with a Doctor of Medical Examination & Internal Medicine - Vinmec Central Park International General Hospital
An anxiety disorder is a state of excessive worry and fear that is subjective and cannot be explained by a physical illness. Anxiety disorders are chronic and slowly progressive conditions that can sometimes occur as exacerbations.

1. What is an anxiety disorder? What is obsessive disorder?

An anxiety disorder is a state of excessive worry and fear, often without cause, that is subjective and cannot be explained by a physical illness. Anxiety disorders are chronic and slowly progressive, and may even occur in a paroxysmal form. Anxiety disorders are often accompanied by increased emotions, manifested by general physical symptoms such as fatigue, nervousness, sweating, and shortness of breath.
Obsessive disorder: A disorder that causes the person to have recurring thoughts, thoughts, or feelings about something even though they don't want to. These recurrent thoughts, thoughts, and feelings control and compel the patient to do an action over and over, even though they don't want to and know it's unreasonable but can't control it.

2. Some Types of Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive Disorders and How to Diagnose

2.1 Sociophobia Social phobia usually begins in adolescence. Initially, the patient showed signs of fear of others staring at him, leading to avoidance of social situations. Social phobia is common in both men and women. Phobias can be subtle such as fear of eating in public or fear of public speaking or fear of meeting people of the opposite sex, fear of vomiting in public,... These are very important symptoms for diagnosis.
Diagnostic criteria according to ICD-10F:
To make a definite diagnosis, all of the following criteria must be met:
a/ The psychomotor, behavioral, or autonomic symptoms must be etiologic manifestations onset of anxiety and not secondary to symptoms such as delusions or obsessive thoughts.
b/ Anxiety must be specific to or predominate in particular social situations (eg, fear of public speaking, fear of others looking at you, fear of sitting near people of the opposite sex).
c/ Avoiding situations that cause phobias must be prominent.
2.2 Panic Disorder (or Panic Disorder) Panic disorders are recurrent episodes of severe anxiety that are not specific to any particular circumstance or situation and are unpredictable. Symptoms often begin suddenly, such as palpitations, chest pain, palpitations, dizziness, and rapid breathing. Outside of the attack, the patient usually feels normal and well and rarely has symptoms of anxiety.
Diagnostic criteria according to ICD-10F:
Diagnosis is based on severe episodes of autonomic dysfunction occurring over a period of about one month:
In the absence of objectively dangerous circumstances. Not specific to any one situation and unforeseeable. In between attacks, patients rarely have symptoms of anxiety. 2.3 Specific phobia

Specific phobias are phobias that only occur specifically for special situations such as fear of animals, fear of heights, fear of thunder, fear of the dark, fear of flying,... Specialization is founded on an intense, persistent, and definite fear. When there are stimuli, phobias will easily cause anxiety and panic attacks.
Diagnostic criteria according to ICD-10F:
To make a definitive diagnosis of specific phobia, all of the following symptoms must be present:
Psychological or autonomic symptoms must be primary manifestations of anxiety that is not secondary to symptoms such as delusions or obsessive thoughts. Anxiety occurs only in the presence of a particular object or situation that causes the phobia. Avoiding phobic situations whenever possible 2.4 OCD repeated despite not wanting to. The patient admits that the phobia is excessive, inappropriate, and unexplainable. For example, after washing their hands, the patient has an impulse that compels them to wash their hands again and again even though their hands are very clean.
Diagnostic criteria according to ICD-10F:
Diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder is based on the following features:
Must be acknowledged by the patient as his or her own thoughts or impulses. There must be at least one thought or movement to which the patient is ineffectively resisting, although there may be other thoughts and movements to which the patient no longer resists. The thought of performing the action must be found uninteresting by the patient (a simple relief of stress or anxiety is not considered pleasurable in this sense). Unpleasant recurring thoughts, images, or impulses

3. Treatment

Treatment includes drug therapy and psychotherapy.
Drug treatment:
Drugs for anxiety disorders include:
Bezodiazepines: Benzodiazepines act on GABA receptors, located in the central nervous system, producing anti-anxiety, anticonvulsant, and inducing effects. sleep and relax. Benzodiazepines involving GABA (benzodiazepine receptor) complexes increase GABA-mediated synaptic inhibition. Commonly used benzodiazepam drugs are: Diazepam, Bromezepam, Alprazolam, Nitrazepam, Clonazepam,...
Other sedatives: Meprobamate, Buspirone Tricyclic and polycyclic antidepressants with sedative effects: Doxepin, Amitriptylin, Prothiaden , Anafranil, Ludiomil, Mianserin,... Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: Fluvoxamine, Fluoxetin, Paroxetin, Sertralin Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy has many cases with good results. But it is still best to apply both types of psychotherapy and chemotherapy at the same time.
Psychotherapy to maintain the patient's emotions, relieve symptoms. Relaxation therapy and individual psychology are the most effective. These therapies aim to assess cognitive-behavior, modify behavior in everyday life situations, and help patients find acceptance of their illness.

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