Q: What are the causes for the Anxiety Disorders? I am told they are a result of a chemical imbalance in the brain, that it is some sort of brain dysfunction or some type of inner ear disturbance and medication is the only way to treat these Disorders as they fix the imbalance.

A: In answer to your question regarding the specific causes of anxiety. There are five major Anxiety Disorders: Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Social Phobia (SP), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), the causes of which, excluding PTSD and GAD, are still being investigated. There is no single defined cause as yet for Panic Disorder and OCD and arguments abound as to the exact nature of the precipitating factors, including the biological theory, the behavioral theory and the psychodynamic theory. In regards to the brain dysfunction theory and the inner ear dysfunction theory, again we have not seen any literature to confirm these are the cause.

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