Anxiety Disorders and Related Conditions

The volume aims to instigate a dialog between the psychoanalytic and the cognitive-behavioral tradition on conceptualization and treatment of anxiety disorders and related conditions through contributions of respective experts. It presents current findings, and current theories and conceptualizations with regards to the mechanisms of etiology and maintenance of anxiety and related conditions, as well as innovative, new or experimental approaches to treatment that target core difficulties found in patients with anxiety. The book integrates basic research with conceptualization and treatment, while giving space for multiple perspectives to treatment, both psychotherapeutic and pharmacological, to be described. Chapters include a) conceptualization and treatment of anxiety and panic from psychodynamic perspectives, b) 2nd wave CBT treatment and the use of virtual reality, c) 3rd wave (ACT) perspectives, and d) neuroendocrine factors, and e) pharmacotherapy perspectives. 

Different theoretical approaches are presented highlighting the strengths and the evidence in favour of each approach, without promoting any specific perspective, but with an effort to highlight common underlying themes like safety behaviors and avoidance, social support, and role of learning history. In this way the book will present a combination of theory, science and practice aiming to be an excellent resource for researchers, clinicians and students of mental health professions. 

​Dr. Med. Christos Charis Biography: 
The author is a consultant for psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, psychiatrist.He has a doctorate with postdoctoral research experience. He has been working in his own practice as a psychodynamic psychotherapist in Dillenburg/Germany since October 2006.In adition, he worked in a mental institution (outpatient department of the Vitos Klinik Bamberger Hof/Frankfurt am Main) one day per week as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist from 2006 to 2021. His primary work interests are in the domain of somatoform disorders, anxiety disorders, depression and personality disorders. He treated a lot of patients with anxiety disorders under the supervision of Professor Sven Olaf Hoffmann for 11 years. (Professor Hoffmann is a very experienced anxiety disorders specialist/psychoanalyst in Germany). 


Since 2012 Professor Georgia Panagiotou and Dr. med. Christos Charis have been organising a biennial international symposium on Cyprus on relevant chapters of psychotherapy, where specialists in behavioural therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy analyse the respective topic from their point of view and enter into a dialogue with each other. Professor Panayiotou and Dr. med. Charis have edited two books together: „Somatoform and other Psychosomatic Disorders“, „Depression, Conceptualization and Treatment“. 


Georgia Panayiotou is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Department of Psychology and Center for Applied Neuroscience, University of Cyprus. Her research is focused on emotion processing and regulation difficulties as they appear and form part of the mechanism of various forms of psychopathology. She has expertise in multiple experimental methodologies, including peripheral psychophysiology, eye-tracking, EEG and more recently has also applied qualitative methods in her work. She conducts both basic experimental research into pathogenic mechanisms of psychological disorders and RCTs on preventive skills training protocols, focused especially on the development of emotion regulation skills in various populations. She has managed many university, national and international grants as PI or co-Investigator on anxiety disorders, learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental disorders, smoking, alexithymia, and other conditions and has collaborated with stakeholders, such as the National Antinarcotics Authority, National Betting Authority, and Ministry of Transport to study emotion and emotion regulation problems in substance use, gambling pathology, and high-risk driving behavior respectively. She has substantial experience in managing large projects, in collaboration with local and multi-national research teams, and has supervised numerous doctoral and post-doctoral researchers locally and internationally.  She teaches undergraduate and doctoral level courses in psychopathology, clinical practicum seminars, and CBT. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist, and currently serves as Dean of the Graduate School at her University.