As many as 8 to 11% of children and adolescents suffer from an anxiety disorder which can develop into specific phobias, social phobias, generalised anxiety disorders and obsessive behaviour. Childhood and adolescents are identified as the main risk developmental phases for the beginning of anxiety disorders and abnormal anxiety levels have negative effects on cognitive functioning, school performance and outcomes. If it were known why anxiety disorders in children was on the increase, some changes could be made to suitably accommodate these learners in schools. Learning barriers can also cause anxiety disorders, resulting in learners’ poor performances academically. A typical school community was selected to conduct the research. The main study objective was to facilitate the implementation of an education support plan, to enable learners with anxiety to participate in learning activities, and provide guidelines on the effective teaching and learning strategies for learners with anxiety disorders. What defines anxiety in learners at school, how are these anxiety disorders managed and what support is available, were the three main research questions posed. Relevant data was gathered via document analysis, questionnaires, observations and field notes and a mixed-method study approach and an interpretivist paradigm were chosen, with the researcher acting as a participant observer. Through a mixed methods approach, relevant in-depth information was generated and by choosing to conduct a case study, an in-depth analysis of anxiety disorders in learners and adolescents in their natural school setting was possible. The researcher’s personal experiences and interactions with the learners, also allowed for a subjective epistemology. A pyramid structure and framework was recommended to maximise support for learners experiencing an anxiety disorder. This framework is comprised of three pillars on which the learner’s success rests, namely: the enrolment procedure, having a support team and effective communication. The teachers indicated that by really getting to know their learners and responding to their needs, they could reduce feelings of anxiety in their learners. Finally, a goal for the near future was set to reduce the unwanted rise of anxious distress in young learners and adolescents so that they can be the successful adults of tomorrow. / Inclusive Education

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Depression and anxiety are etiologically heterogeneous disorders and their pathophysiology remains largely unknown. Gut microbiota has been shown to modulate brain function, behavior, and immune responses, and it has also been proposed to play a role in the pathophysiology of depression and anxiety. Our study aimed to investigate whether microbiota from patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) can induce anxiety and depressive-like behaviour in germ-free mice and whether this is accompanied by changes in immune markers and brain activity. Germ-free NIH Swiss mice (n=27) were colonized with microbiota from either a GAD patient (n=13) with severe anxiety and comorbid depression or an age and sex-matched healthy control (HC) (n=14). Six mice from each group were treated with infliximab for three weeks (5mg/kg/week) starting at week 1 post-colonization. Microbiota profiles were assessed via 16S rRNA based Illumina. Three weeks post-colonization, all mice underwent six standard psychometric tests, including the open field, digging, marble-burying, and tail-suspension test. Cecal -defensin-3 and serum kynurenine/tryptophan were measured via ELISA. BDNF expression was assessed by immunofluorescence, and gene expression by using Nanostring gene assay. Fecal -defensin levels were higher in GAD patients than in healthy controls. Similarly, -defensin levels were higher in GAD-colonized mice than in HC-colonized mice. GAD and HC-colonized mice had a unique and distinct microbiota, similar to that of their respective human donors. GAD-colonized mice exhibited anxiety and depressive-like behavior compared to HC- colonized mice, as assessed by the open field, digging, marble burying and tail suspension tests. BDNF expression was decreased in the hippocampus but increased in the amygdala of GAD-colonized mice. GAD-colonized mice also had a greater kynurenine/tryptophan ratio than HC-colonized mice. GAD and HC infliximab-treated mice showed no differences in behavior, central BDNF expression or kynurenine/tryptophan levels. Our results suggest that GAD microbiota has the ability to induce anxiety and depressive-like behavior and alter brain BDNF expression in a murine host. These changes are accompanied by the activation of the innate immune system and seem to be TNF- dependent. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The relationship between attention bias and anxiety has been robustly supported across paradigms and disorders; however, most published studies have ignored the known multidimensional nature of attention, and instead proceeded in measuring attention bias as a unitary construct, resulting in a lack of clarity regarding which attentional mechanisms contribute to specific manifestations of anxiety. In the current study we addressed this by collecting response latency data on three basic attentional processes, (1) attentional orienting, (2) attentional disengagement, and (3) attentional control to evaluate their relationship to specific anxiety symptoms. In a final sample of 149 college undergraduates, who either completed the computer tasks in-lab (N = 28) or online (N = 121), we used an unsupervised clustering approach (k-means clustering) to assign individual cases to clusters, depending upon their performance on measures of attention. We used a supervised machine learning approach (random forest), to cross-validate the unsupervised classification results. Anxiety symptoms were then set as predictors, predicting cluster membership using multinomial logistic regression. With the unsupervised k-means clustering approach, we found four clusters in the data. The random forest algorithm suggested variable prediction accuracy, dependent upon cluster size. Anxiety symptoms were unrelated to attention cluster membership. Study results were limited, which may be influenced by potential data collection and analytic factors. / Master of Science

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between guilt and anxiety as well as the relationship of these factors to certain psychological and sociological variables. The variables were sex, ordinal position, marital status, education, religious beliefs, church attendance, happiness of childhood, discipline from parents, happiness now, parental happiness, parental education, and parental occupation.

The aim of the thesis is three fold: a-To develop a new questionnaire that measures anxiety in terms of four components (feeling, cognitive, behavior and somatic). b-To investigate the relationship between feeling and cognition with regard to anxiety. c-To identify, with the application of Three Systems Theory, the most salient component of anxiety in each of the DSM-III anxiety disorder sub-classifications and to evaluate the validity of DSM-III anxiety disorder sub-classifications. a-In order to assess the level of anxiety, I have developed a new Four Systems Anxiety Questionnaire (FSAQ). FSAQ incorporates a feeling component along with the behavioral, somatic and cognitive components. A psychometric evaluation (reliability and validity levels) of the questionnaire was found to be satisfactory. b-Another aim is to reconsider one of the tenets of cognitive therapy that cognitive appraisals are the necessary preconditions for the emergence of feeling. Such a view assumes that feeling is merely an epiphenomenon of cognitive processes. This research establishes, however, that feeling and cognition appear to be relatively independent systems and that their modes of interaction are influenced by the personality structure of the individual. This conclusion was obtained by using the FSAQ on university students and various categories of anxiety patients. In particular, the research compared the scores on the feeling and cognitive components of both males and females, obsessive-compulsives and rest of the DSM-III anxiety patients. c- A further aim of the reseach was to examine the DSM-III anxiety disorders classification from the Three Systems Theory's point of view. The Three Systems Theory proposes that anxiety has three relatively independent components: cognitive, behavioral and somatic. In the various anxiety sub-classifications of DSM-III one or other of these three components dominates. The other purpose of my research was to consider each of the DSM-III anxiety disorders separately and to determine which of the three components plays the major role in the manifestation of the particular syndrome. In general, the results indicate that each anxiety disorder is indeed characterised by a different profile. An anticipated outcome of this research is that a clinician will be able to identify the main component of anxiety in a particular syndrome and hence select most appropriate treatment. The results of this study support DSM-III classification of anxiety disorders into two main categories of phobic and non-phobic (i.e. phobic and anxiety states).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 1999. / Prepared for: Dept. of Psychology. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Columbia University. / Without thesis statement. Bibliography: p. 361-367.

Mindfulness meditation has received increased attention from clinicians and researchers alike in recent decades and subsequently has been incorporated into treatments for a variety of psychological conditions, including anxiety. Although a small body of experimental research examining the influence of mindfulness on anxiety has developed, few studies to date have experimentally tested the effects of mindfulness meditations beyond a brief breathing meditation. This gap in the literature restricts our understanding of the efficacy of various brief mindfulness interventions currently utilized as clinical tools for anxiety. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to expand upon previous studies by examining the differential effect of two mindfulness exercises – a mindful body scan and a breathing meditation. More specifically, the current project investigated the influence of each intervention on 1) state mindfulness, 2) state cognitive anxiety, and 3) state somatic anxiety. Further, the project examined the moderating influence of participants’ reactions and compliance to each condition on pre-to-post intervention changes in cognitive and somatic anxiety. The current study suggests that brief mindfulness tasks induced state decentering, but not curiosity. However, there appears to be relative uniformity in the effect of both interventions on cognitive and somatic anxiety. Finally, the current study indicates that enjoyment while completing a mindfulness exercise is an important moderating factor on the efficacy of mindfulness interventions for anxiety.