Familial Factors

Applying the Sociological imagination to this issue gives us a different look at this issue. Earlier sociologists have taught us that in order to fully understand an issue we need to look at the history of the people if effects. The family history of people greatly affects who this disorder plagues and who it doesn’t. Recently studies have shown that if a person is sensitive to high levels of anxiety because of a hereditary factor they are more apt for getting this disorder. This disorder has been shown to run in families. This information could be vital for a sociologist looking for answers. Thus, if a sociologist noticed that there was a large amount of people with this disorder in the same location it could be explained by looking at the family history. Looking at a genetic link would be very important in finding out why large amounts of people had this disorder in the same general location. If after looking at the people who had this disorder all shared some genetic link it would provide a good explanation to why they had this disorder. Another explanation for the disorder is cultural circumstances. Living in American can be very stressful. Many people find that life is just too overwhelming to deal with. Having this disorder may be greatly influenced by a person’s culture. Being on time is greatly stressed in American Culture today. Most people with this disorder have been found to spend

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is one of the most diagnosed mental disorders today, and can often be closely linked to concurrent symptoms or disorders including physiological, behavioral, other anxiety disorders, depression and substance abuse. (Merino, Senra & Ferreiro, 2016) (Cacioppo & Fregberg, 2013, p. 688). GAD most notably produces symptoms of excessive worry and anxiety related to non-specific risks, which often leads to functional decline both socially and professionally (Roberge et al., 2015). GAD reveals instances of links to biological origins such as heredity and biochemistry, as well as, ties to an individual’s cognitive development and socioeconomic environment (Cacioppo & Fregberg, 2013).

This theory creates an issue, as it only looks at nature’s impact as the root cause of phobic disorders and relishes in not accounting for environmental causes, which are posed by nurture. This aspect of nurture which is ignored can be questioned in the twin studies as although Torgersen found that identical twins who share genes are 5x more likely to share an anxiety disorder, it is unclear whether it is the nature of the genetic makeup which causes the disorder, or the nurture of the twins, as they would have both gone through the same things in their environment causing the contamination effect. This is further highlighted through the diathesis stress model formed by Di nardo et al which provides a much more

| Lifetime Estimated Prevalence of Anxiety disorders in the population Phobias = 9-24% Population(Hansell & Damour, 2008)

2. What would be the expected outcome when a patient is given gamma-aminobutyric acid? What is this medication prescribed for? What side effects would we teach about? GABA Is a neurotransmitter that helps send messages between the brain and the nervous system. GABA is a mediator of anxiety level therefore it reduces anxiety by suppressing the circuitry in the brain that causes anxiety.

According to DSM-V, “anxiety disorders include disorders that share features of excessive fear and anxiety and related behavioral

Gamma-Aminobutyric acid commonly referred to as GABA, and glutamate make up around 80 percent of the neurotransmitters found in brain. GABA dampens the activity in the brain while

CBT stresses on the patient learning to view the triggering, or stressful situations from a different, more manageable perspective, and to use learned methods of relief that attempt to change the thoughts and behaviors that involves training the patient to detect internal and external stimuli that trigger anxiety and to apply newly learned coping skills that target the psychic and somatic symptoms of the disorder. The drawbacks to psychological therapy such as CBT stems from not only its limited availability, since few providers are trained in providing this type of mental health treatment, especially in rural areas, as but also from patient participation in the treatment. Psychotherapy is a gradual process which may take weeks to derive benefit. As such, many patients become unmotivated due to lack of immediate relief of symptoms. Pharmacotherapy via medications such as antidepressants or benzodiazepines is much more effective at relieving immediate symptoms with medications that have few adverse effects and a lower potential for abuse, though is not normally adequate at long term management of GAD. Combining psychotherapy and and pharmacotherapy is the ideal for improvement of symptoms and management of patients with GAD.The benzodiazepine antianxiety drugs relieve anxiety but should only be prescribed for 4 to 6 weeks because of the potential for abuse

With anxiety disorders being one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders in the United States continued research is critical. The pervasiveness of these disorders including panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder and specific disorders comes at a high cost both socially and economically (Beidel et

People decisions, attitudes, and beliefs are acquired from their cultural roots. Psychology has established social perception results from the individual’s cultural milieu. Social perception is a process that aids us to understanding others as well as ourselves. This paper will discuss anxiety disorder; examine the connection between human development and how this connection affects anxiety disorders.

p. 188). Although studies show that it is not always the case that BD is directly inherited from parents, there is a higher chance of mood disorders in the offspring of BD parents. Studies have shown that the environment and stress can cause “changes in gene expression during key developmental periods” (Pishva, 2014. p. 341). These stressors can affect individuals either through the parent during utero (while a baby is developing) or during their lifetime, as an adult. Environmental exposures during early postnatal life have been associated with mental disorders, including bipolar disorder. One example is maternal care. There is an association of maternal care and “hippocampus-related learning and memory processes” (Pishva, 2014. P. 341). The author asserts that environmental influences affect gene expression and behavior. There are many genes and proteins which are interdependent on each other, and if one is affected due to an environmental factor, it affects the other, increasing levels of stress regulator systems, which affect the behaviors of individuals (Pishva, 2014. p. 342). Environmental factors including drug use are also related with BD. This is not to say that the use of drugs can cause BD or other mood disorders, however, the presence of certain disorders and the use of drugs are sometimes connected. For instance, use of methamphetamine is associated with altered expression of major DNA enzyme DNMTI,

(2015) found that stressful life events, such as maternal perpetrated CEA and CSA, may have a genetic vulnerability on the SS allele of the serotonin transporter genotype, Brown et al. (2013) also wanted to assess this interaction in relation to depression. Similar to Harknes et al. (2015), Brown et al. (2013) looked at current depressive symptoms as well as length of episodes, childhood maltreatment using the CECA, and stressful life events using the LEDS. For their study, Brown et al. looked at the S allele and L allele by looking at different primers from the saliva of their participants. Brown and associates found that those who had the S allele and had also experienced CEA, had chronic episodes of depression, lasting 12 months or longer. However, this was only significant for past episodes of depression. Brown et al. also found that the gene by environment interaction leading to chronic depression was only significant when CEA occurred early in life. Henceforth, research by Brown et al. also coincides with research by Harkness et al. (2015) in that both data suggests that there may be a genetic vulnerability of the serotonin transporter genotype after CEA occurs early in life, which may also impact depressive

Thesis Statement: Early Anxiety is stemmed from many factors, however the main cause of anxiety in adolescents is directly related to parenting and/or family influences.

Everyone with any mental health disorder always wonders if linkage of genetics is part of the disorder they have. People have said that risk of genetics being a factor in anxiety disorders is less likely to be a switch more than a problematic mix of genetics that can put a person at risk. Researchers have said that anxiety disorders can be due to hostile childhood experiences. Efforts to identify the specific DNA mutations to the heritability of anxiety disorders establish any independent, suspicious loci, but any genetic study for anxiety faces some obstacles also. The fine line between healthy and pathological anxiety is unclear, and the phenotypic and genetic barriers between scientific anxiety disorders

Family is one of the hardest words to define. There are many definitions and thoughts of what a family consists of. When one accepts the definition of the census family given by Statistics Canada then a family becomes “a married couple and the children, if any… a couple living common law and the children, if any… a lone parent with at least one child living in the same dwelling… grandchild living with grandparents but no parents present… Census families can be opposite or same sex and children may be adopted, by birth, or marriage and all members must be living in the same dwelling” (Baker 2014). With family being such a difficult term to agree on, the creation of a complex study of family life emerges. The factors that influence family life are put into three theory categories; Social Structure, Interpersonal Factors, as well as Ideas, Global Culture, and Public Discourse.