Abstract
An overview of anxiety disorders in the recent literature was conducted. Anxiety disorders tend to be comorbid with other anxiety disorders and also with mood disorders. Environmental factors have more effect than genetic ones do, regarding the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. It is argued that the hyperactivity of the amygdala and hypofrontality, especially in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, were important mechanism in the occurrence of anxiety disorders. Meta-analyses of the effects of pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavior therapy were shown. Regarding psychopharmacology for anxiety disorders, neurotransmitter inputs and outputs of the amygdala were sketched. A dopamine hypothesis for anxiety disorder was proposed. In connection with the hypothesis, the merits of using serotonin/dopamine antagonists for anxiety disorders were emphasized. A lot of the literature showed that anxiety disorders have a chronic and recurrent nature, and comorbidity with depression makes them intractable.
