Anxiety: Mechanisms and Management

This chapter reviews the characteristics and development of anxiety as a clinical problem, some behavioral and chemotherapeutic approaches successfully used to control anxiety, and finally some recent studies on the mechanisms of action of anxiolytic agents. Systematic desensitization is one of the most widely employed behavioral techniques used in the treatment of anxiety. The theoretical mechanisms which underlie modeling are still the subject of investigation. In an attempt to establish a relationship between occupation of benzodiazepine receptors by diazepam and anticonvulsant action, mice were administered an anticonvulsant dose of drug, and challenged at various intervals with partially antagonize pentylenetetrazole. It is possible that a similar reduction of central nervous system benzodiazepine receptors may underlie a genetic predisposition or diathesis for the development of pathological anxiety in susceptible human beings.