Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Developmental Issues and Implications for DSM-V
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Anxiety and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents and its assessment
Childhood and adolescence is the core risk phase for the development of symptoms and syndromes of anxiety that may range from transient mild symptoms to full-blown anxiety disorders. Challenges from a research perspective include its reliable and clinically valid assessment to determine its prevalence and patterns of incidence, and the longitudinal characterization of its natural course to better understand what characteristics are solid predictors for more malignant courses as well as which
Prevalence and Onset
There is persuasive evidence from a range of studies that anxiety disorders are the most frequent mental disorders in children and adolescents, and thus seem to be the earliest of all forms of psychopathology. The onset of anxiety disorders (or symptoms/syndromes of anxiety) has been assessed in youth and adult samples, in cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys, most frequently by using the answers of the respondents to questions like “When was the first time you experienced …” (Fig. 1). Of
Correlates and risk factors for anxiety disorders
Many variables are considered to be risk factors for anxiety disorders. Attempts to definitively demonstrate that the many correlates of anxiety are, in reality, risk factors face considerable methodological hurdles, because it must be demonstrated that the risk factor is actually present before the onset of the anxiety disorder,80 and ideally that the probability of onset of a disorder is related to the severity, frequency, or duration of the risk factor. Thus, cross-sectional studies merely
Summary and conclusions
Anxiety disorders are common and early emerging conditions associated with considerable developmental, psychosocial, and psychopathological complications. Although early anxiety syndromes may remit spontaneously, the vast majority of children and adolescents that have developed a threshold anxiety disorder will be affected by the same condition or other mental disorders (including other anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, or substance use disorders) over the further course of life. The
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