What Are Anxiety Disorders?

What Are Anxiety Disorders? is a very detailed infographic from Global Medical Education to help people understand the history, issues and treatments of anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorders are the commonest psychiatric illnesses globally. There is no test for anxiety disorders like panic disorder, PTSD,OCD or social anxiety disorder and the diagnosis is based on a good history and examination. The signs and symptoms of anxiety disorders are often missed or explained away. Anxiety disorders are also commonly comorbid with other psychiatric disorders particularly mood disorders.

There is no cure for anxiety disorders but very effective treatments are available with a good evidence base. The treatments for anxiety disorders include medications like benzodiazepines, SSRIs or SNRIs or other new generation antidepressants, atypical antipsychotics, as well as augmentation therapies.  Several proven therapies are also efficacious in patients with anxiety disorders. These include cognitive behavior therapy, relaxation training, and prolonged exposure therapy. Yoga and meditation have also demonstrated benefits.

There is a lot of information in this design.  It’s all good, but packing this much information into one infographic is a risk.  On one hand, all of the major information in included in one place.  On the other hand, an infographic this big with this much text will discourage many readers that are looking for a fast and easy explanation.  The overall design can be intimidating to readers that are evaluating the amount of time they would need to invest in understand the information before they start reading.  Many will leave before reading any of the infographic.

Thanks to David for sending in the link!

Common Causes of Tummy Aches in Children

Common Causes of Tummy Aches in Children from Tummy Calm is guide for all parents, because all kids get unexplained stomach aches at some point.   The infographic does a good job of clearly walking the audience through the potential symptoms, causes and remedies.

A tummy ache can be a frustrating symptom to understand in small children.  While it’s a common problem, there are a wide variety of potential causes.  This infographic reviews many potential causes of stomach ache and offers pros and cons to potential remedies.

Designed by InfoNewt, this infographic is much more visual explanation and less data visualization.  Health-related topics are also designs that you need to be careful with.  You want to provide good information to the audience, but you don’t want to be interpretted as advising medical care.  The design was carefully worded to be helpful to parents, but also reviewed by a pediatrician to make sure the information presented didn’t cross the line into providing medical advice.

The Explosive Growth of Infant Prescriptions

ColicCalm.com has released a new infographic exploring the incredible rise in the number of infant prescriptions.    Education before medication, please explains the diagnosis, treatment and potential side effects of infant GERD.

Are Infant Reflux Drugs Worth the Risks?

The number of babies prescribed acid suppression drugs such as H2 blockers and PPIs grew 8-fold during 2002 to 2009, but fewer than 10% received any diagnostic testing for GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease). Some pediatricians are growing concerned that the “epidemic” of infant GERD cases is actually due to over-diagnosis, especially since clinical trials show acid blockers work no better than a placebo and can actually lead to short term and long term side effects. The FDA has not approved PPIs for treatment of GERD in children younger than one year.

Designed by InfoNewt, this design follows the 3-part story format really well.

1. Introduction: What is GERD? - background information
2. The Main Event: The Explosive Growth of Acid Blockers - the surprising statistic visualized
3. Conclusion: What’s the harm? - potential side effects

The topic is potentially controversial, so the design carefully sticks to only sharing the facts and research about infant GERD, and includes an exhaustive source list.  The other critical design elements are also included in the design, like the Creative Commons license and the infographic landing page URL so anyone can find the full-size original.