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Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Published in Judy Z. Koenigsberg, Anxiety Disorders, 2020
How does death anxiety contribute to the development and maintenance of generalized anxiety disorder? According to Wolfe (2008), the etiology of the anxiety disorders needs to take death anxiety into consideration because it is the most common source for patients with anxiety disorders. Wolfe (2003, 2008) suggests that patients with GAD use several defenses to cope with their self-wounds and anxiety. They may be self-preoccupied with their anxiety, they may avoid the objects and settings that are connected to the anxiety, and/or they may become enmeshed in interpersonal behavior patterns of negativity (Wolfe, 2003, 2008).
Death anxiety and death education: a brief analysis of the key issues
Published in Lorna Foyle, Janis Hostad, Delivering Cancer and Palliative Care Education, 2018
Death anxiety is a complex phenomenon which, although pervasive in wider society, takes on a significantly different character within the arena of cancer and palliative care. In order to appreciate the unique character of death anxiety within this specialty, it is necessary to acknowledge the intrinsic factors (knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and rituals) as well as the extrinsic factors (the prevailing culture, and organisational and management philosophy). It is recommended that, in order to allow professionals to face and work through their negative feelings and attitudes towards death, educational approaches need to be developed that foster a climate of acceptance and support (Durlak 1994), which in turn facilitates and motivates participants to share, work and learn together. The ethos of care requires a foundation-stone that needs to be laid by educational strategists and clinical institutions alike.
Adjustment and anxiety
Published in Ad (Sandy) Macleod, Ian Maddocks, The Psychiatry of Palliative Medicine, 2018
Ad (Sandy) Macleod, Ian Maddocks
The fear of illness and death is universal. The illnesses most feared are those of madness, spinal injury and cancer. Death anxiety is the fear of non-being, of not existing. Surveys have shown 50–80% of cancer patients have concerns or troubling thoughts about death.22 Death fear is independent of religion and religious practice.22 Religiosity may camouflage these fears. Spirituality and religious faith may be coping strategies, and perhaps protective ones. Death anxieties may centre on particular concerns such as fears of the manner in which one may die, of life being meaninglessly medically prolonged, of pain and disfigurement, of loss of personal desirability, of being dependent and a burden, of financial and employment losses, of the future care and safety of dependents, and of abandonment by relatives, friends and professional carers. The core theme to these concerns and fears is the loss of control, independence and autonomy associated with the unwanted ‘sick and dying role’.
Are anxiety disorders a pathway to obsessive-compulsive disorder? Different trajectories of OCD and the role of death anxiety
Published in Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 2021
Rachel E. Menzies, Matteo Zuccala, Louise Sharpe, Ilan Dar-Nimrod
The limitations of the present study should be noted. First, death anxiety scores were not measured prospectively, therefore the direction of causality between variables cannot be made. Although individuals with higher death anxiety at present had exhibited a greater number of lifetime diagnoses, it is unclear whether death anxiety was similarly elevated during previous periods of pathology. It may be that such elevated death anxiety levels at present are a consequence, rather than driver, of the greater number of lifetime diagnoses. However, it should once again be noted that all findings remained significant even after controlling for neuroticism, suggesting that trait anxiety is unlikely to explain these effects. In addition, the idea that death anxiety drives these anxiety-related disorders (rather than the reverse causal direction) is supported empirically. Recent experimental evidence demonstrates that reminders of death worsen behaviours associated with many of the disorders identified in the present study, including specific phobias [27]; illness anxiety disorder [25] and of course, OCD [8]. In light of these previous experimental findings, the current interpretation regarding causality seems plausible. However, in order to clarify the causal role of death anxiety in psychopathology, future empirical investigation would benefit from employing prospective study designs. Further research may also benefit from examining whether the current findings replicate using a larger sample of individuals diagnosed with OCD.
Death and dying: elderly persons’ experiences of grief over the loss of family members
Published in South African Family Practice, 2018
Participants also experienced anxiety about impending death, particularly when multiple deaths took place and where they had to anxiously observe their family members’ condition deteriorating. Death anxiety is a multifaceted construct that is difficult to define, but it has been conceptualised to include fear of death of others, and fear of dying, and it may manifest in avoidance or denial.19 Often participants protected the dying and other family members from sorrow by hiding their tears. According to Ekore and Lanre-Abass3 even the dying person goes through periods of fear and grief once the inevitability of death becomes apparent. Most people who lose a family member experience a wide variety of psychological symptoms, such as sadness, anxiety and anger, and also physical pain, reflected by phrases such as having ‘a broken heart’,19 as was observed in this study.
Connecting the dots between caregiver expectations and perceptions during the hospice care continuum: Lessons for interdisciplinary teams
Published in International Journal of Healthcare Management, 2020
Death has been directly linked to anxieties that reflect the psychological responses experienced by dying patients. Richardson et al. [27] defined death anxiety as ‘a negative feeling a person experiences about death and dying’ (p. 31). Tomer and Eliason [28] ascribed death anxiety to the fear engendered by the thought and reality of self no longer existing. Humans are cognitively capable of fully contemplating their own mortality but lack the heroic fortitude to face death in its natural and inevitable sense, furthering heightening death anxiety and uneasiness [29,30]. Preparations for death are still seen as a difficult transition.