ANXIETY DISORDERS

Composite Diagnostic Evaluation

Thomas A. Ban, M.D.

 

Temporality

The second organizing principle of psychiatric nosology, temporality, or representation of psychopathology in the time, is based on Falret’s (1854) separation of folie circulaire from other mental disorders. It was on the basis of the second organizing principle that panic disorder, characterized by episodic pathology in the processing of experience, was separated from generalized anxiety disorder, characterized by continuous pathology in the processing of experience. It was also on the basis of the second organizing principle that panic disorder, characterized by anxiety attacks lasting from minutes to hours, could be separated from panic mood disorders, characterized by phases and periods of moods lasting from days to weeks or even months.

November 21, 2024