How to treat chronic anxiety?

Anxiety disorder is the abbreviation of anxiety neurosis. As the name suggests, it is a neurosis whose main characteristic is anxiety. A more professional way of saying it is that there is no factual basis, no clear objective object, and no specific conceptual content, but one will feel nervous and apprehensive. This kind of mood is anxiety disorder. Another type may be muscle tension, etc. Anxiety disorder can be acute or chronic. Acute means that the attack is sudden and the reaction is very intense. It usually lasts from a few minutes to a few hours. Everything will be normal after the attack.

Acute anxiety often occurs against the backdrop of chronic anxiety, but more patients mainly show symptoms of chronic anxiety. Generally, chronic anxiety is typically manifested by five major symptoms, namely palpitations, fatigue, nervousness, shortness of breath and chest pain, in addition to tension, cold sweats, fainting, belching, nausea, abdominal distension, constipation, impotence, frequent urination, etc., which are sometimes difficult to distinguish from neurasthenia or other specialized diseases. Therefore, doctors need to have a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the condition to avoid misdiagnosis. Sometimes some necessary auxiliary examinations can help rule out organic diseases, such as electrocardiograms, chest X-rays, gastrointestinal angiography, gastroscopy, etc., which can help doctors diagnose the disease. However, although the subjective symptoms of anxiety are severe, the objective signs are very mild or negative.

Drug treatment has a significant effect on this disease

1. Tricyclic antidepressants

Imipramine and clomipramine are more effective, and the initial dose should be small. For example, imipramine can be started with 12.5 mg once a day before bedtime, and increased by 12.5 mg every other day until 300 mg. The general therapeutic dose is 150 mg, and some individuals may need to use more than 300 mg.

2. Benzodiazepines

Alprazolam has the best effect; followed by clorazepate, hydrochloride, sulazepam, and diazepam, which also have good effects. Alpraazole can be used at 0.4-0.8 mg 3 times/d.

3. B-adrenergic receptor blockers

Propranolol can be used to relieve the patient's autonomic hyperactivity symptoms. Buspirone is effective in treating generalized anxiety and has no side effects such as drowsiness.

Psychotherapy: It is the basic method for treating this disease. Commonly used ones are: collective psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, individual psychotherapy, and Sen-Four Therapy. Individual psychotherapy is psychological counseling tailored to the specific circumstances of individual patients based on collective or group therapy. Morita therapy, which advocates following nature, is one of the effective methods for treating neurasthenia.

Generally speaking, psychotherapy means that the doctor explains some medical knowledge about anxiety disorder to the patient. After the patient has a full understanding of the disease, he or she can analyze the cause of the disease and then find corresponding countermeasures. In this way, some suspicious psychology can be eliminated, and some anxiety and worry problems will be alleviated, and some vicious cycles will be broken. However, psychotherapy requires the active cooperation of the patient to achieve the greatest effect.