Simple phobia

Gelernter J, Page GP, Bonvicini K, Woods SW, Pauls DL, Kruger S (2003) A chromosome 14 risk locus for simple phobia results from a genomewide linkage scan. Mol Psychiatry 8 71-82... 

Looking now into the prevalence rates reported from the several studies, lifetime prevalence rates for all anxiety disorders lumped together in the different studies range between 5.6% and 28.7%. The estimated median of the included studies is 15.1%. Lifetime prevalence estimates describe the proportion of persons in the population who have developed the disorder under consideration at least once in their life. Based on this estimated median, anxiety disorders occur in approximately 1 in 7 persons in the general population at some point in their life. Looking closer at specific anxiety disorders, it becomes evident that the high hfetime prevalence of anxiety disorders is mostly due to the high frequency of simple phobia and social phobia. 

Magee WJ, Eaton WW, Wittchen HU, McGonagle K A, Kessler RC (1996) Agoraphobia, simple phobia and social phobia in the National Comorbidity Simvey. Arch Gen Psychiatry 53 159-168... 

Approximately three-quarters of children with OCD have comorbid diagnoses. These include tic disorders (24%-30%) and mood disorders, especially major depression (26%-29%). Riddle and colleagues (1990) found that 38% of children with OCD have other anxiety disorders, while Swedo (1989) more specifically identified increased rates of simple phobias (17%), overanxious disorder (16%), and separation anxiety disorder (7%). Other reported comorbidities include specific developmental disabilities, adjustment disorder with depressed mood, oppositional defiant disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder, and enuresis/encopresis (Swedo et ah, 1989b Riddle et ah, 1990). 

Lavigne and colleagues (1996), using categorical approaches with a community sample of 3860 preschoolers aged 2-5 years in a primary care pediatric sample, found the five most frequent axis I diagnoses (DSM IITR) to be ODD (17%), ADHD (2%), avoidant disorder (0.7%), overanxious disorder (0.7%), simple phobia (0.6%), and functional enuresis (0.7%). Five percent of children also met criteria for parent-child relational... 

The word phobia comes from the Greek word for fear phobos, and refers to an inappropriately intense and irrational fear toward some object or situation. Most adults who experience phobias recognize that the fear is irrational. Most phobias fall into the category of specific (sometimes called simple ) phobias. The more complex social phobia (also called social anxiety disorder ) will be discussed later. 

PTSD is linked with the increased likelihood of other psychiatric disorders occurring at the same time. Some 88% of men and 79% of women with PTSD meet the criteria for another psychiatric disorder. The most common disorders that men have at the same time as PTSD are alcohol abuse or dependence (51.9%), major depressive episodes (47.9%), conduct disorders (43.3%), and drug abuse and dependence (34.5%). The psychiatric disorders that most frequently cooccur with PTSD in women are major depressive disorders (48.5%), simple phobias (29%), social phobias (28.4%), and alcohol abuse/dependence (27.9%). These statistics may indicate that people with PTSD are more susceptible to psychiatric disturbances in general. 

Formerly called simple phobia, specific phobia is a marked, excessive, or unreasonable and persistent fear of a specific object or situation (e g., snakes, heights, thunderstorms). Exposure to the phobic stimulus provokes immediate and intense anxiety that the individual recognizes as excessive or unreasonable. The degree of impairment frequently depends on whether the feared object or situation is commonly encountered or can be easily avoided. The diagnosis should only be made if avoidant behavior interferes with the person s normal routine, social activities, or relationships, or if there is marked distress about having the fear. Differential diagnosis may include the following ... 

Cameron OG, Liepman MR, Curtis GC, et al. Ethanol retards desensitization of simple phobias in non-alcoholics. BrJ Psychiatry 1987 150 845-849. 

The nosology of anxiety disorders has changed considerably over the past 40 years (141). Such disorders were not mentioned in the original DSM. In DSM-II, problems with anxiety were considered a subset of behavioral disorders and were restricted to overanxious and withdrawing reactions. The DSM-III defined three types of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents overanxious, avoidant, and separation disorder. The DSM-III also acknowledged that children and adolescents could meet adult criteria for simple phobias, panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In DSM-IV ( 45), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and social phobia (or social anxiety disorder with childhood onset) replaced overanxious disorder and avoidant disorder, respectively. 

Specific phobias used to be called simple phobias. They are excessive and unreasonable fears of specific objects or situations, such as flying in an airplane, heights, animals, seeing an injection, or seeing blood. In specific phobias, exposure to the feared situation or object causes an immediate anxiety response or even a full-blown... 

Although neuroticism is not a disease per se, it predisposes individuals to anxiety disorders (12, 13). Neuroticism is a vulnerability factor for all forms of anxiety (14-16). A system established by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Psychiatric Disorders in the United States, currently in its 4th edition (DSM-IV) text revision (TR) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), sets the boundary at which a particular level of behavior becomes an anxiety disorder—a level often based on the number and the duration of symptoms. DSM is a categorical system based on the qualitative separation of disease states from the state of well-being. The DSM-IVTR category of anxiety disorders currently includes generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), simple phobia, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic disorder, social phobia, and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) as discrete anxiety disorders. The International Classification of Diseases-10 (IC-10) is a similar system, but it is less frequently used in research (17). 

In another study, Malsch and Kieser (2001) investigated the anxiolytic effects of WS 1490 compared to placebo in patients previously treated with a benzodiazepine. They evaluated the potential of the kava preparation as a replacement for the benzodiazepine, as well as the ability of the kava preparation to reduce benzodiazepine withdrawal symptoms. This was a five-week randomized, double blind placebo-controlled study in outpatients with non-psychotic anxiety (e.g., generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, and simple phobia). Forty patients were included, and all had been on benzodiazepines (i.e., lorazepam, bromazepam, oxazepam, or alprazolam) for a mean duration of 20 months prior to entering the study. Of the 40 patients, 25 were males, and the mean age of the total sample was 40 years (range 21—75 years). 

Boerner, RJ. (2001) Kava kava in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, simple phobia and specific social phobia. Phytotherapy Research, 15, 646-647. 

Panic disorders, with or without agoraphobia, affect 1.6% of the adult population (>3,000,000 people) in the United States at some time in their lives. In panic disorder, brief episodes of fear are accompanied by multiple physical symptoms, such as terror, fear of dying, heart palpitations, difficulty in breathing, and dizziness. Panic attacks recur and the victim develops an intense fear of having another attack, which is termed anticipatory anxiety. In addition, the victim may develop irrational fears, called phobias, that relate to situations in which a panic attack has occurred. This condition may coexist with other phobias (agoraphobia, simple phobia, social phobia), depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, alcohol and drug abuse, suicidal tendencies and irritable bowel syndrome. 

Social phobia Persistent fear of one or more social situations Specific phobia (formerly simple phobia) Fear of an object or stimulus, not generalized fear... 

In general, a phobia can be best defined as an intense, unrealistic fear of an object, event, or feeling (Plaud Vavrovsky, 1998). It is estimated that 18% of the American adult population suffers from some type of phobia (Hall, 1997). Yet exactly how phobias develop and what triggers and sustains the phobic response remains elusive. There are three primary types of phobias (a) agoraphobia, the fear of being unable to escape when leaving a safe place) (b) social phobia, the fear, embarrassment, and avoidance of social situations and (c) specific or simple phobia, the fear of an object or other than social situations. 

Gas mask phobia may be categorized as a form of claustrophobia occasioned by the wearing of a protective mask. In psychiatric terms, it could be defined as a simple phobia.1 Symptoms include hyperventilation, sweating, and panic. These usually cause the eyepieces to fog up, leading to an inability to see, move, shoot, and communicate. Many soldiers either break the seal and lift the mask off the face, or remove the mask completely. Prevention and initial treatment of gas mask phobia and malingering should be command issues, handled though the NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical) officers recalcitrant cases may be referred to the mental health service for further evaluation and desensitization techniques. 

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