Mission of the CAC
Interdisciplinary strategies
The CAC is committed to providing people with an anxiety disorder with the best possible, interdisciplinary, and individually tailored therapy. In order to continuously improve these therapies, to develop innovative therapy concepts, or to further optimize already existing therapy methods, the therapy facilities of the CAC – adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and the university outpatient clinic – work hand in hand with numerous other institutions.
Interdisciplinary networking
In addition to clinics, hospitals, and institutes from the fields of medicine, psychology, special education, and pedagogy in Würzburg, this also includes every inpatient psychiatric as well as child and adolescent psychiatric hospital in Lower Franconia, some hospitals from the rest of Bavaria, and from Baden-Württemberg. High-ranking scientists from Berlin, Freiburg, Tübingen, and Frankfurt are also involved in our research.
Spectrum of anxiety disorders
At the CAC, we treat all forms of anxiety disorders in an interdisciplinary manner. Generally, one must distinguish between phobias, panic disorders, and generalized anxiety disorder.
Phobias
Among the best-known anxiety disorders are phobias, which occur in response to specific triggers. These include, for example, fear of spiders, fear of flying, or fear of heights. Another common specific anxiety disorder is social phobia, which is the fear of failing in social interaction with other people. The so-called agoraphobia is triggered by certain places and situations such as wide open spaces or crowds of people.
Symptoms range from slight discomfort to panic attacks with physical symptoms such as shortness of breath, palpitations, sweating, or trembling. Frequently, patients try to avoid the triggering situation.
Panic disorders
When repeated panic attacks occur that are neither directed towards a specific situation or object nor can be influenced in any way, we use the term “panic disorder”. Such panic attacks hit suddenly and out of the blue for a few minutes, sometimes several times a day, without any recognizable trigger. Physical symptoms such as palpitations, sweating, trembling, or suffocation fears are often accompanied by feelings of numbness and dizziness, or even fear of death. Typically, patients develop a persistent fear of the next panic attack. The first panic attack often occurs in connection with a stressful experience, or as a result of chronic stress.
Generalized anxiety disorder
People who experience permanent tension, anxiety, and numerous fears in their daily life over a long period of time may suffer from a so-called generalized anxiety disorder. Anxious brooding and continued pondering over banal facts as well as fearful speculation impair their everyday lives, and often their sleep. For example, patients do not answer an unexpected telephone call in the first place for fear of bad news. A generalized anxiety disorder is hard to define precisely, and is often difficult to distinguish from an anxious personality structure. For this reason, patients with this form of anxiety disorder often do not receive treatment - despite the high level of suffering.
Individually tailored and innovative therapy concepts
The range of individually tailored therapy concepts includes outpatient, day-care, and inpatient treatment options for both adults and children. Based on practice-oriented research, we develop and test innovative therapy concepts, which are evaluated with regard to their benefits in clinical trials at our departments. We also contribute to the improvement of guidelines for the standardization of therapeutic methods.
Anxiety disorders and comorbidities
Frequently, anxiety disorders occur as a concomitant disease of an underlying physical condition, for instance a cardiac disease. We develop interdisciplinary therapy concepts for such comorbidities and evaluate them in scientific studies.
Awareness and prevention
We provide information about anxiety disorders, and suggest methods of prevention, to patients, relatives, and other interested parties with a variety of different activities. We are also testing prevention programs designed to avoid the development of an anxiety disorder in persons with an increased risk.
Contact
Prof. Dr. med.
Jürgen Deckert
Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy
+49 931 201-77000
Univ.-Prof. Dr. med.
Marcel Romanos
Clinic Director Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
+49 931 201-78000
Contact, Office Hours
Phone
Registration for outpatient treatment at the Department for Psychiatry for Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (PPP)
+49 931 201-77800
Registration in the university outpatient clinic
+49 931 3182839
Registration for outpatient treatment at the Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (KJPPP)
+49 931 201-79600
Email and Fax
PPP Secretariat
ps_sekr@ukw.de
+49 931 201-77020
University outpatient clinic secretariat
angstambulanz@psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de
+4931 31-828390
KJPPP Secretariat
kj_ambulanz@ukw.de
+49 931 201-78620
Address
Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Angsterkrankungen | Universitätsklinikum Würzburg | Magarete-Höppel-Platz 1 | 97078 Würzburg | Deutschland