The Nature and Treatment of Anxiety Disorders

At one time or another, everyone experience some form of anxiety, in the United States alone, doctors write over 80 million prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs each year. While our understanding of the various anxiety disorders has increased substantially, practitioners remain faced with a confusing array of seemingly contradictory treatment approaches. Now, C. Barr Taylor and Bruce A. Arnow integrate this wide range of theoretical, empirical, and clinical knowledge into a coherent framework for understanding and treating anxiety disorders.

Written by a psychiatrist and a psychologist, this volume brings together the psychological and biological approaches to the study of anxiety. Throughout, the author adopt a consistent “symptom focused” treatment approach which calls upon those specific psychopharmacologic, behavioral, and psychotherapeutic techniques which they and other researchers have identified as most effective in treating each disorder. The purpose of such treatment is, at minimum, to reduce the intensity and frequency of the presenting symptoms, in some cases, such problems will resolve entirely. Depending upon the type of anxiety disorder, Taylor and Arnow’s approach often begins with psychopharmacology combined with cognitive behavioral therapy and other directive therapies. Later, after the presenting complaint has been addressed, treatment may evolve to include family, marital, or psychodynamic therapy as appropriate.