Handbook of Anxiety and Fear

Thorough overview of animal and human research on the topic of fear and anxiety.

D. Caroline Blanchard (Edited by), Guy Griebel (Edited by), David J Nutt (Edited by)

9780444530653, Elsevier Science

Hardback, published 17 March 2008

450 pages
26.2 x 19.2 x 2.8 cm, 1.4 kg

"The Handbook of Anxiety and Fear is a lengthy and thorough review of the experimental, neurobiological, pharmacological, and clinical components of anxiety and fear. The text is written at a high level of detail, and the concepts within are supported by lengthy reference sections. This text ... does a wonderful job in covering the scientific basics of the topics.... there is strong coverage of basic science and the current state of knowledge in human clinical scenarios. This text is best suited to professionals and advanced graduate students who research anxiety disorders. Professionals wishing to review the scientific bases of the anxiety disorders would do well to include this book in their personal libraries." --James J. Jakubow, in PsyCritiques April 1, 2009, Release 13, Article 7

This Handbook brings together and integrates comprehensively the core approaches to fear and anxiety. Its four sections: Animal models; neural systems; pharmacology; and clinical approaches, provide a range of perspectives that interact to produce new light on these important and sometimes dysfunctional emotions. Fear and anxiety are analyzed as patterns that have evolved on the basis of their adaptive functioning in response to threat. These patterns are stringently selected, providing a close fit with environmental situations and events; they are highly conservative across mammalian species, producing important similarities, along with some systematic differences, in their human expression in comparison to that of nonhuman mammals. These patterns are described, with attention to both adaptive and maladaptive components, and related to new understanding of neuroanatomic, neurotransmitter, and genetic mechanisms. Although chapters in the volume acknowledge important differences in views of fear and anxiety stemming from animal vs. human research, the emphasis of the volume is on a search for an integrated view that will facilitate the use of animal models of anxiety to predict drug response in people; on new technologies that will enable direct evaluation of biological mechanisms in anxiety disorders; and on strengthening the analysis of anxiety disorders as biological phenomena.

Section 1. Introduction

Introduction to the Handbook on Fear and Anxiety
Robert Blanchard, D. Caroline Blanchard, Guy Griebel and David Nutt

Section 2. Animal models of Anxiety, Fear and Defense

Theoretical approaches to the modeling of anxiety in animals
Neil McNaughton and Hélio Zangrossi Jr.,

The use of conditioning tasks to model fear and anxiety
Michael S. Fanselow and Ravikumar Ponnusamy

Extinction of fear: from animal studies to clinical interventions
Karyn M. Myers and Michael Davis

Defensive behaviors, fear and anxiety
D. Caroline Blanchard and Robert Blanchard

Unconditioned models of fear and anxiety
Yoav Litvin, Nathan S. Pentkowski, Roger L. Pobbe, D. Caroline Blanchard and Robert J. Blanchard

Section 3. Neural Systems for Anxiety, Fear, and Defense

Brain mechanisms of Pavlovian and instrumental aversive conditioning
Christopher K. Cain and Joseph E. LeDoux

Neural systems activated in response to predators and partial predator stimuli
Newton Sabino Canteras

A behavioral and neural systems comparison of unconditioned and conditioned defensive behavior
Newton S. Canteras and D. Caroline Blanchard

Section 4. The Pharmacology of Anxiety, Fear, and Defense

Peptide receptor ligands to treat anxiety disorders
Thomas Steckler

Subtype-selective GABAA/benzodiazepine receptor ligands for the treatment of anxiety disorders
James K. Rowlett

Modulation of anxiety behaviors by 5-HT-interacting drugs
Francisco Silveira Guimarães, Antonio Pádua Carobrez and Frederico Guilherme Graeff

The glutamatergic system as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of anxiety disorders
John F. Cryan and Kumlesh K. Dev

The endocannabinoid system and anxiety responses
Marco Bortolato and Daniele Piomelli

Genetic factors underlying anxiety-behaviour: a meta-analysis of rodent studies involving targeted mutations of neurotransmission genes
Catherine Belzung, Samuel Leman and Guy Griebel

The pharmacology of anxiolysis
Andrew Holmes

Section 5. Handbook of Fear and Anxiety:

Clinical and Experimental Considerations
Phenomenology of anxiety disorders
David J. Nutt, Berta Garcia de Miguel and Simon J.C. Davies

How effective are current drug treatments for anxiety disorders, and how could they be improved?
David S. Baldwin and Matthew J. Garner

Experimental models: panic and fear
Gabriel Esquivel, Koen Schruers and Eric Griez

Principles and findings from human imaging of anxiety disorders
Andrea L. Malizia and David Nutt

Stress hormones and anxiety disorders
Elizabeth A. Young, James L. Abelson and Israel Liberzon

The genetics of human anxiety disorders
Eduard Maron, John M. Hettema and Jakov Shlik

Subject Areas: Neurosciences [PSAN], Clinical psychology [MMJ], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Physiological & neuro-psychology, biopsychology [JMM]