In this article, we will Explain the Causal Factors of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
Causal Factors of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) indicated as follows:
1. Causal Factors of GAD – Biological Perspective
Genetic Factors: There is mixed evidence for genetic factors. However, a modest genetic component for GAD has been reported (Hettema, Neale, & Kendler). Among the research studies carried out so far. One of the largest and most recent twin studies has reported variance of 15 to 20% in liability to GAD due to genetic components. In other words, there is a higher concordance rate for GAD in MZ than DZ twins. Further, strong evidence has been found for a common underlying genetic tendency for GAD and major depressive disorder (MDD) (Kendler et al.). Nonetheless, whether a person with a genetic risk for GAD or MDD will develop the disorder/s is determined by the environmental factors (nonshared environment). A basic personality trait called neuroticism has been conceptualized as the common underlying predisposition for developing GAD and MDD (Kendler et al.).
Neurochemical and Neurohormonal Factors: The Neurobiological model is based on the research conducted between 1950s and 1970s on the operations of benzodiazepines. It’s a group of drugs that are effective in the treatment of anxiety. Researchers discovered a receptor in the brain for benzodiazepines that are connected to the inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA or Gamma Amino Butyric Acid. In normal fear reactions, neurons throughout the brain fire and create the experience of anxiety. This neural firing also stimulates the GABA system, which inhibits this activity and reduces anxiety. GAD may result from some defect in the GABA system so that anxiety isn’t brought under control. The benzodiazepines may reduce anxiety by enhancing the release of GABA. GABA, serotonin and norepinephrine have been suggested to play a role in anxiety (LeDous), but their interaction remains mostly unknown to date (Butcher et al.).
The Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone (CRH): CRH plays a role in GAD as it’s an anxiety-producing hormone. When CRH is triggered by stress or perceived threat, it stimulates the pituitary gland which in turn releases the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). The ACTH stimulates the adrenal gland which in turn releases the stress hormone called cortisol. The CRH is believed to play an important role in GAD as it has been revealed to affect the bed nucleus of the extension of the amygdala which mediates generalized anxiety (Davis).
Related Question:
Explain the General Characteristics of Generalized Anxiety Disorder(GAD).
2. Causal Factors of GAD – Psychoanalytic Perspective
Generalized anxiety is the result of a constant unconscious struggle between id impulses and ego. Id impulses are aggressive and sexual in nature and struggle for expression whereas the ego does not let the id express its desires, because of its unconscious fear of being punished. The person does not know the reason for anxiety because the source of anxiety is unconscious, and as a result, it’s always anxious and apprehensive. The person can’t avoid anxiety as she/he can’t escape from id. For the escape from id means that the person is no longer alive. Moreover, since anxiety isn’t displaced onto a specific object or situation as it happens in the case of a phobia, hence the person is anxious nearly all the time. But this viewpoint is not clinically accepted, due to a lack of empirical verification.
3. Causal Factors of GAD – Behavioural Perspective
According to Wolpe, the elicitors of anxiety may be environmental factors, for example, other people or social situations. A person who spends most hours of her/his day with other people may be anxious. They are anxious because of the people or the social situations, not because of any internal factors. For example, the person learns to associate their anxiety with the presence of other people.
4. Causal Factors of GAD – Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective
The main underlying idea is that GAD results from distorted cognitive processes. People with GAD often misperceive kind events. For example, crossing the street as involving threats, and their cognitions focus on expected future disasters (Beck et al.). Their attention is easily drawn to threatening stimuli (Mogg, Miller, & Bradley). Studies have shown that in contrast to non-anxious people, generally anxious people tend to notice threat signals when presented with a mixture of threat and non-threat signals (Mineka et al.). Additionally, they are more inclined to interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening and to rate threatening events as more likely to occur to them (Butler & Matthews,). The high intense sensitivity to threatening stimuli occurs even when the stimuli cannot be consciously perceived (Bradley et al.).
Uncontrollable and unpredictable disinterested events are much more stressful and hence more anxiety-provoking than controllable and predictable events. People with GAD may have a history of go through many important life events as unpredictable and uncontrollable (Mineka & Zinbarg). Early experience with control and mastery can immunize to some extent against the harmful effects of experience too stressful situations and may in turn immunize against GAD (Barlow et al.).
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Describe the Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia. Elucidate the Biological Causes of Schizophrenia.
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