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Phobias

Ulunma Natalie Umesi, MBA, MD and Ambreka Benons, MD Reviewed 04/2024
 


BASICS

Phobias are classified as anxiety disorders. 

DESCRIPTION

A marked, persistent, excessive, and unreasonable fear of an object, activity, place, or situation 
  • Symptoms develop in the presence/antic...

DIAGNOSIS

HISTORY

  • Irrational or ego-dystonic fear of a specific situation, activity, or object with associated avoidant behavior

  • Perform a mental status exam.

PHYSICAL EXAM

Symptoms associated with exposu...

TREATMENT

  • First-line treatment for specific phobia is behavioral therapy, which includes exposure therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).

  • Treat major psychiatric disorders first (bipolar, schiz...

ONGOING CARE

FOLLOW-UP RECOMMENDATIONS

Patient Monitoring

  • Outpatient, as needed for medical management

  • Referral for outpatient psychotherapy (CBT)

DIET

Consider the restriction of stimulants, such as caffe...

REFERENCES

1
Rodebaugh  TL, Holaway  RM, Heimberg  RG. The treatment of social anxiety disorder. Clin Psychol Rev.  2004;24(7):883–908. [View Abstract on OvidMedline] ...

SEE ALSO

Anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder); Depression; Dissociative Disorders; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD); Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); Schizophrenia 

CODES

ICD10

  • F40.9 Phobic anxiety disorder, unspecified

  • F40.00 Agoraphobia, unspecified

  • F40.218 Other animal type phobia

  • F40.11 Social phobia, generalized

  • F40.220 Fear of thunderstorms

  • F40.01 Agoraphobia wit...

CLINICAL PEARLS

  • CBT is a first-line, long-term effective treatment of panic with agoraphobia and social phobia. Behavioral exposure therapies are first-line, long-term effective treatments for specifi...

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