Biological, Clinical and Cultural Perspectives (Handbook of Anxiety)

The recent burgeoning of scientific enquiry into anxiety disorders has shed new light on the biological and psychosocial causes of anxiety disorders as well as on the normal emotion of anxiety. In so doing it has helped sharpen the line of demarcation between them. It has also paved the way for the development of novel forms of treatment that are already bringing relief to those affected by those forms of suffering dominated by morbid anxiety. States of anxiety continue to be difficult to measure and to define and the differentiation of these conditions from other forms of psychiatric disorders and from ordinary anxiety remains a subject of controversy and debate between various sections of thought. This new open-ended Handbook of Anxiety series seeks to steer the middle road between the various streams: by having its editorship divided over Europe, the USA and Australia, and through a highly international team of authors, a scholarly, up-to-date and critical review providing the necessary balance is warranted. This volume explores the different dimensions of anxiety and their interactions, focussing on the growing points created by the scientific advances of the past decade.