Anxiety is both an innate and a constructed response to perceived and anticipated threat. This chapter explores anxiety as signal, symptom and syndrome, and describes the evolution of the major psychodynamic models of signal anxiety. The major psychodynamic models of signal anxiety posit anxiety as a signal of unconscious, intrapsychic danger. Neurobiological factors also contribute to the development and expression of anxiety symptoms and syndromes. Imaging techniques have been used to illustrate the presence of unconscious processes that to date have only been hypothesized; specifically that unconscious affects are a crucial determinant of behavior. Many symptomatic patients were forced to make adaptations to internal and external threats in early childhood. Ironically, the treatment of symptomatic anxiety may create an anxiety of its own, the anxiety about change. Many patients present with the acute onset of anxiety symptoms but do not meet the criteria for an Axis I anxiety disorder.

This chapter begins by summarizing the research and clinic-based evidence regarding the nature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The manner in which the disorder affects individuals as they mature from childhood to adulthood is then discussed, and various intervention strategies are presented. The two main current classification schemes, namely the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV), published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), published by the World Health Organization (WHO) contain a disorder characterized by a cluster of three core behavioural symptoms: inattention; hyperactivity; and impulsivity. The development of ADHD in individual is likely to be multi-factorial. Genetic contributions, neurobiological factors, illness, psychological variables and environmental factors may all play a role. The three main treatment approaches to ADHD are: pharmacological; psychological; and nutritional. The actual treatment options vary depending on the targets of intervention.