THMC Mental Health & Innovation Centre
ADHD and Dementia Assessment
緻安精神健康醫療創新中心
Mental Health Clinic Specializing
in ADHD and Mood Disorders
for Children and Adults
Open as Usual on Saturday Afternoons
焦慮症和恐懼症
Anxiety and Phobia Disorders
Generalized anxiety disorder is a condition characterized by continuous anxiety, excessive worries, sweating, irritable bowel and urinary frequency. Panic disorder is characterised by frequent panic attacks, including palpitation, hyperventilation, fear of losing control and hand tremor. Social phobia is characterised by fear and anxiety associated with public speaking and performance. Agoraphobia is characterised by fear and anxiety associated with crowded markets or trains that are hard to escape. Post-traumatic stress disorder can be caused by a life-threatening condition (e.g., severe road traffic accident) and the person experiences flashbacks of accidents, hypervigilance, avoidance of the accident place and recurrent nightmares.
A case of anxiety
Ms. Wong is a 35-year-old teacher who feels very nervous and must check her markings often. She reports excessive sweating, hand shakiness and frequent urination. She feels anxious most of the time, which affects her teaching. She cannot recall the last time when she was relaxed
How common are anxiety and phobia disorders?
Anxiety disorders are the most common of mental disorders. Anxiety disorders affect nearly 30% of adults at some point in their lives. It is common among post-menopausal women.
What are the different types of anxiety and phobia disorders?
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) causes the person to feel anxious about a wide range of situations. People with GAD feel anxious most days.
People with panic disorder have frequent panic attacks that are characterized by a sudden wave of racing heart, trembling, difficulty breathing, dizziness, chills etc.
People with social phobia can fear (and try to avoid) a range of situations, e.g. parties, public speaking, etc.
Agoraphobia involves fearing and avoiding places or situations that might make one feel trapped (e.g. crowded shopping mall or train etc).
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People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) experience uncontrollable and recurring thoughts (obsessions), and engages in repetitive behaviors (compulsions e.g. hand-washing, checking etc).
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a dangerous event (e.g. Road Traffic Accident)
How can a psychiatrist help me?
The psychiatrist can work with you based on cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to overcome anxiety, phobia and obsessions. Furthermore, the psychiatrist can recommend medications to reduce the severity of anxiety symptoms, phobia, OCD and PTSD symptoms, as well as reducing frequency of panic attacks.
Source: Academic papers in which Dr Roger Ho is one of the co-authors.
Basant Puri, Anne Hall and Roger Ho Revision Notes in Psychiatry (3rd edition) CRC Press (Taylor and Francis): New York (An 848-page book) ISBN-10: 1444170139.