Anxiety Disorder Research Paper

This Essay will discuss Anxiety disorders and its prevalent diagnosis within society with a focus on patients who choose to self-medicate, exploring the reasons behind why they choose to do so and the inherent social and health dangers associated with this behaviour. I will discuss why anxiety disorders are almost at epidemic proportions in all sections of society today with a majority still undiagnosed. The possible failure in diagnosis and treatment of this condition and discuss reasons as to the growing prevalence in self-medicating and the resultant effects it may have on the condition, society and pre hospital care.

As a student Paramedic and also having family members serving in the emergency services, I have always been mindful of
Other considerations may be that Psychiatrists are over analysing and misinterpreting normal behaviours which would have been dismissed as eccentric or odd behaviours in the past. Within certain professional mental health circles there is a growing concern that the adverse effects of psychiatric medications may be causing chronic ill effects and possibly compounding some patient’s disorders. “Psychiatry’s drug-based paradigm of care is the primary cause of the epidemic” (Whitaker,
midazelam, temazepam and diazepam for short term management of anxiety disorders, β- adrenoceptor antagonists (beta blockers), anti convulsants (Lyrica: pregabalin), azapirones (5-HT1A receptor agonists: buspirone) and long term drug treatment regimes with antidepressants - Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI’s) which act by blocking the reabsorption/reuptake of serotonin by nerve cells in the brain and leaving more serotonin improving mood. Serotonin & norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI’s) increase the levels of both neurotransmitters (serotonin & norepinephrine) by inhibiting their reabsorption back into to the brains cells e.g. venlafaxine, aropax (paroxetine), duloxetine and the off-label use of both atypical and typical antipsychotic drugs. The prescription and application of the above drugs can be as wide and varied as the signs and symptoms of the patients themselves presenting with anxiety disorders. The pharmacological treatment for GAD is short term anxiolytics: benzodiazepines, β - adrenoceptor antagonists, pregabalin and buspirone which is a partial serotonin agonist that presents no sedative effects, no cognitive or psychomotor impairment properties and has minimal withdrawal symptoms (Cadieux, 1996). Panic attacks are commonly treated with SSRI’s or SNRI’s and short term