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Differential Diagnosis of Anxiety Disorders

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Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents
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Abstract

Although anxiety is a basic human emotion that affects adults and children alike, clinical and research emphasis on child and adolescent anxiety disorders is relatively recent. Perhaps the first famous case of an anxiety disorder was Freud’s (1955) case study of “Little Hans” who presented with a phobia. Freud conceptualized and treated Hans from a psychoanalytic perspective with emphasis on unconscious processes that had an underlying psychosexual basis associated with oedipal impulses. Conversely, the case of “Little Albert” by Watson and Raynor (1920) demonstrated that, using behavioral principles, a stimulus that originally did not elicit fear (i.e., white rats and white furry stimuli) could be paired with an unpleasant stimulus (i.e., loud sound) to elicit a fear response. Since Freud’s seminal work, conceptualization of anxiety, fear, and phobic reactions has changed from a primarily psychoanalytic perspective to one that emphasizes cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses. A cognitive–behavioral perspective emphasizes the interactions among these three components that contribute to the development and maintenance of anxiety symptoms that interfere with functioning. From a behavioral perspective, anxiety and fear may be caused by or exacerbated by the presence of aversive or stressful situations that the child cannot avoid or control.

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Huberty, T.J. (2012). Differential Diagnosis of Anxiety Disorders. In: Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3110-7_5

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