Anxiety In Children And Teenagers: Anxiety Disorder

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Anxiety in children and teenagers

Childhood is, by its very nature, marked by certain fears — of monsters, of the dark, of being left with a new babysitter, of starting school, and so on. As children get older they outgrow these fears and may develop new ones, like the fear of failing a test or of being embarrassed when called on in class. But apart from these normal developmental fears, many children also suffer from anxiety disorders — up to 13%, according to the Surgeon General's report on mental health.

The prevalence of anxiety disorders in children is greater than was previously thought. Until the 1994 publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual–IV (DSM-IV), the standard diagnostic manual of psychiatric conditions, children with persistent and significant fear of social situations were said to have either avoidant disorder of childhood or adolescence, which is a kind of personality disorder, or overanxious disorder of childhood. But the DSM-IV eliminated these two categories when it became clear that the symptoms of avoidant disorder of childhood or adolescence were actually those of social phobia, and the symptoms of overanxious disorder were the same as those of generalized anxiety disorder.

Children affected by anxiety disorder According to the Surgeon General's report on mental health, 13% of children suffer from an anxiety disorder.

Last updated:	September 05, 2008