Anxiety, OCD, and Related Disorders
What is the key feature that differentiates panic attacks within another disorder from Panic Disorder itself?
Panic Disorder requires recurrent unexpected panic attacks plus persistent fear of more attacks (fear of fear)
while panic attacks within other disorders are typically expected and cued by specific triggers.
This disorder involves real physical symptoms, and the mechanism is not the symptoms themselves, but the patient’s excessive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors about those symptoms.
What is Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD)?
(Mechanism = excessive interpretation, not “are symptoms real or not.”)
What is the main difference between hypervigilance in PTSD and hypervigilance in Panic Disorder?
PTSD hypervigilance is focused on external threats related to the trauma, while Panic Disorder hypervigilance is focused on internal bodily sensations signaling another attack.
Whats the difference between an addiction and a compulsion
Addiction: can be both negatively and positively reinforced
Compulsions: there is just negative reinforcement
Depersonalization vs de-realization
Deperson=detached from yourself
Dereal=A feeling that the external world is unreal or distorted.
What differentiates ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) from typical exposure therapy used for phobias?
ERP includes exposure plus the deliberate prevention of compulsions, while standard exposure therapy only involves exposure to the feared stimulus.
In exposure therapy there are no compulsions involved
Whats the core mechanism that differentiates between illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder
IAD=the core mechanism is fear of a serious illness despite minimal or no symptoms
SSD=the mechanism is misinterpreting actual symptoms as dangerous
Fun fact:
In DSM-IV, “medically unexplained symptoms” were required.
✔️ The person’s excessive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors
about the symptoms
—not—
whether the symptoms have a medical cause.
So:
The symptoms can be medically explained
The symptoms can be medically unexplained
Either way, SSD can still be diagnosed
if the person’s response is excessive or disproportionate.
What is the core difference between an obsession (OCD) and an intrusive trauma memory (PTSD)?
OCD obsessions are intrusive, irrational “what‐if” thoughts about imagined dangers, while PTSD intrusions are involuntary re-experiencing of a real traumatic event.
This mechanism explains why people with SUD continue using substances despite harm
What is negative reinforcement (relief-driven substance use)?
(Use continues to avoid discomfort.)
What is the primary emotion driving behaviors in Social Anxiety Disorder?
Fear of negative evaluation.
Whats the fundamental difference between repetitive behaviors in Generalized Anxiety Disorder vs. OCD?
repetitive behaviors in GAD : safety behaviors/reassurance seeking (avoidance strategies) that reduce anxiety but are not linked to obsessions.
repetitive behaviors in OCD:performed to neutralize an intrusive obsession that feels irrational or ego-dystonic.
What is the main psychological mechanism involved in Conversion Disorder?
For bonus points!What are the two elements of recommended treatment?
Emotional distress → becomes expressed as motor or sensory symptoms (e.g., paralysis, blindness, pseudoseizures) without conscious intent.
In professor’s phrasing:“A psychological conflict or trauma is converted into a neurological-like symptom.”
1. Address the underlying psychological cause
(e.g., trauma, conflict, stressor)
2. Reduce secondary gain
(attention, avoidance of responsibilities, reinforcement from others)
In what situations might it be best to diagnose with Other Reaction to severe stress F43.89
good for complex stress
for series of events
ambiguous trauma
What are the two core PGD symptoms that MUST be present (at least one of them) to diagnose Prolonged Grief Disorder?
To diagnose Prolonged Grief Disorder, the person must have one or both of the following:
1. Intense yearning / longing for the deceased ✔️ (you got this!)
2. Preoccupation with thoughts or memories of the deceased
These are the two core symptoms, and at least one must be present.
What is the gold standard assessment tool and treatment name for OCD
Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive scale
Exposure and Response Prevention
The key mechanism distinguishing Somatic Symptom Disorder and Illness Anxiety Disorder
The presence vs. absence of meaningful symptoms
SSD involves real physical symptoms with excessive thoughts about their meaning, while its close differential, IAD, involves either minimal or no physical symptoms but persistent fear of having a major illness
Name the two disorders that involve intentional production of symptoms. How do they differ in their underlying motivational mechanism?
Factitious Disorder and Malingering involve intentional production of symptoms
Factitious = internal psychological need to be sick.
Malingering = external incentives (money, housing, avoiding work, legal advantages).
What are the limitations of PTSD Diagnostic Criteria
high rate of comorbidity between PTSD and other disorders
multiple and interpersonal traumas present more complex symptomatology than PTSD diagnosis covers
What is the main emotional difference between PGD and MDD?
In Prolonged Grief Disorder, the emotion is longing for the deceased; in Major Depressive Disorder, the emotion is generalized anhedonia and low mood.
PGD → attachment-focused longing
MDD → global depression, not tied to one person
What is the KEY cognitive mechanism emphasized in lecture for OCD (related to obsessions)?
The key cognitive mechanism in OCD is obsessional doubt — confusing imagined possibilities with real probability.
People with OCD give too much weight to imagined “what if?” scenarios and treat them like facts.
Whats the threat mechanism that differentiates PTSD from Panic Disorder
PTSD centers around external threat cue tied to past event
Panic Disorder centers around internal threat cue such as racing heart or dizziness
This disorder features disproportionate worry that centers almost exclusively on the interpretation and meaning of physical sensations, whereas its look-alike involves persistent worry that shifts across many domains and is not anchored to bodily symptoms. Name BOTH disorders.
What are Somatic Symptom Disorder (symptom-anchored worry) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (multi-domain, free-floating worry)?
Describe the core distinction in symptom structure between Acute Stress, PTSD, and Adjustment Disorder
What is
Adjustment Disorder (stressor-linked, non-trauma, no cluster structure)
Acute Stress Disorder (trauma-linked; 3 days–1 month; pooled 9-symptom requirement)
PTSD (trauma-linked; symptoms >1 month; must meet 4 symptom clusters)
Alcohol combined with this drug class dramatically increases overdose risk due to additive suppression of brain regions responsible for breathing
What are opioids or sedative-hypnotics (e.g., benzodiazepines, sleep aids)?
True or False: Tolerance/withdrawal criteria can be met in SUD when taking medications as prescribed.
FALSE
(DSM-5-TR specifically states these symptoms do NOT count toward SUD if meds are taken as prescribed.)