[Anxiety in times of COVID-19 and other health crises]. / Ängste in Zeiten von COVID-19 und anderen Gesundheitskrisen.

BACKGROUND: Epidemics and pandemics and the measures taken to contain their spread are accompanied by numerous stressors, which can lead in particular to severe anxiety. OBJECTIVE: This article describes the components and determinants of these anxiety symptoms, potential resilience and risk factors and appropriate recommendations for action. METHODS: The article presents an overview of research results regarding COVID-19 and previous epidemics and pandemics (e.g., HIV, SARS, MERS, Ebola and swine flu). Furthermore, official recommendations for action are presented. RESULTS: Anxiety symptoms frequently occur in epidemics and pandemics, especially in the early phase and usually decrease in the further course. Although other aspects of different infectious diseases vary, the associated fears are similar and include e.g. the fear of health-related, social and economic consequences. Resilience and risk factors in various epidemics and pandemics are comparable. Self-efficacy expectation, tolerance of uncertainty, normalization, routines, safety and social support usually have a protective effect. In contrast, excessive media consumption, female gender, work in a medical context, suppression, pre-existing diseases, unhealthy behavior and closer exposure to the virus are often accompanied by more severe anxiety. CONCLUSION: Fears should be observed and addressed in order to reduce pathological processes, especially in vulnerable groups. It is advisable to promote resilience factors and to counteract risk factors with preventive and therapeutic measures. For this purpose, the development and empirical testing of specific interventions as well as further longitudinal studies are needed.

Performance anxiety in professional musicians: a systematic review on prevalence, risk factors and clinical treatment effects.

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is one of the most common disorders among professional musicians, nevertheless, little is known about the disease. With this systematic review, prevalence, risk factors and treatment procedures for MPA were assessed, and for the first time, quality assessments were carried out for all studies using standardized assessment tools. A systematic literature search was conducted via search algorithms in the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycArticles, PsycInfo and ERIC. Included were case reports, case-control, cohort, cross-sectional and intervention studies examining professional musicians with MPA. For quality assessment, adapted tools of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute were used. A total of 43 studies were included (10 case reports, 21 intervention, 11 cross-sectional, one cohort study). Quality ratings ranged from -11 to 6 out of a maximum of 15/16 points for cross-sectional/cohort studies and -4 to 11 out of 18 points for intervention studies. The prevalence of MPA was between 16.5% and 60%. More women than men were affected and musicians older than 45-50 years reported less MPA than younger musicians. Regarding treatment cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and ß-blockers were most often researched with beneficial results for CBT. However, studies with adequate control groups for CBT interventions are needed to clarify its efficacy. Studies showed methodological weaknesses, especially in the selection of participants, recording of influencing factors, blinding of interventions, randomization of participants and analysis of comorbidity. Recommendations for further research are made.

Learn to forget: Does post-exposure administration of d-cycloserine enhance fear extinction in agoraphobia?

The use of d-cycloserine (DCS) to augment exposure based therapy for anxiety disorders has shown mixed, although overall positive effects. Aim of the present study was to examine post-exposure administration of DCS in patients with agoraphobia with or without panic disorder. 73 patients with agoraphobia (with or without panic disorder) were treated with 12 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) including 3 exposures. Following successful exposure patients were given double blind either placebo or 50 mg of DCS. Primary outcome criterion was change in the Panic and Agoraphobia Scale (PAS) between CBT session t1, t4 (+∼2 months), t10 (+∼3 months) und t11 (+∼4 months). During the course of CBT the patients' symptomatology decreased significantly as measured by primary and secondary outcome criteria, however, without an additional benefit for DCS treated patients. Exploratory sub-group analyses for severely ill patients and patients with high anxiety and strong habituation during exposure showed that DCS administration was associated with increased improvement during the 1-month follow-up period (t10 - t11) with medium to large effect sizes (range in effect size η2p from .06 to .25). Our study results are consistent with recent research on DCS, indicating a beneficial augmentative effect for sub-groups of anxiety patients. The lack of an overall DCS effect for the whole patient sample might be explained by a dual mechanism in fear conditioning and extinction with different cognitive processes being involved during exposure depending on the degree of anxiety experienced by the patient.

[Generalized anxiety disorder]. / Generalisierte Angststörung.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent mental condition with substantial impact on psychosocial functioning and quality of life. There is also an increased risk of comorbidity with several other mental and somatic diseases. Clinical symptomatology is characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worrying about distinct issues of daily living which is frequently associated with somatic symptoms of stress and anxiety. Neurobiological and psychological research provide evidence for alterations in (para) limbic areas, a disturbed monoaminergic transmission as well as for dysfunctional learning in the pathogenesis of GAD. Therefore, second generation antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), selective serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SSNRI), the calcium channel modulator pregabalin and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are the first choice treatment options. Depending on symptom severity, patient preference and availability, both medication and CBT can be applied as monotherapy or in combination.