The "Improving Access to Psychological Therapies" (IAPT) initiative is very ambitious and exciting.  It states its principal aim is to support English Primary Care Trusts in implementing "National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence" (NICE) guidelines for people suffering from depression and anxiety disorders.  IAPT go on to say that "At present, only a quarter of the 6 million people in the UK with these conditions are in treatment, with debilitating effects on society."

One aspect of this carefully planned initiative is strong encouragement to assess and monitor the progress of those who are getting help.  Visiting the IAPT "Outcomes Toolkit and FAQ" web page provides access to several freely downloadable documents.  The emphasis is on good assessment measures that are free to use.  See below:

IAPT Outcomes Toolkit 2008/9 PDF - this 81 page 1.1Mb Adobe PDF is the September 08 version with amended IAPT Paper Based Data Set Questionnaires.

“

You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars.

” - Thomas Traherne

Other anxiety disorders include Anxiety Disorders due to a General Medical Condition (where the anxiety is a direct physiological consequence of a general medical condition), Substance-Induced Anxiety Disorder (where the anxiety is directly caused by the physiological effects of a substance - drug of abuse or medication - including prescription use, poisoning, intoxication, or withdrawal), and Anxiety Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (where there is prominent clinically significant anxiety or phobic avoidance that doesn't meet the diagnostic criteria for any other anxiety or adjustment disorder).

Health anxiety disorder and hypochondriasis are typically classified under Somatoform disorders.

“ Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power. ” - Benjamin Disraeli

Acute stress disorder

“

This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.  Polonius in Hamlet

” - Shakespeare

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

“

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

” - Henry Ford

Specific phobias

“

The self may be said to be made up of reflected appraisals.

” - Harry Stack Sullivan

Social anxiety disorder

“

"Knowledge is only rumour, until it is in the muscle."

 

” - New Guinea Proverb

Panic disorder

“

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

” - Einstein

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)