Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents

In children and adolescents there could be several reasons that may cause anxiety. Such as 

• Genetic factors – children whose parents suffer from anxiety are more likely to experience anxiety themselves,
• Stressful and or traumatic life events – this could result in poor coping skills and increased vulnerability
• Environmental factors – loss of family members, divorces, bullying, school pressures, social difficulties.
• Not all children will become anxiety when exposed to those triggers.

If you think your child may have anxiety, you should contact your GP first. Your GP would be able to identify anxiety and point you in the right direction. You could see a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist for further assessment and diagnosis. The diagnosis is based on the information from the child/adolescent in a psychiatric interview, using relevant questionnaires (when needed), getting collateral information from family/carers, and carrying out a complete mental state examination.

There is a lot of evidence based on research that accessing the treatment early not only improves the mental health of the child but also reduces the chances of recurrence in adulthood. The treatment of anxiety is multimodal and includes the use of pharmacology, psychological interventions and, social interventions.

In milder cases of anxiety self-help interventions and Mindfulness-based interventions may be helpful. 
Some mild to moderate cases of anxiety may best respond with the psychosocial interventions such as use of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), lifestyle changes, exercising, and using coping strategies.

In some cases of moderate anxiety and in severe anxiety, use of pharmacological interventions such as antidepressants or anxiolytics can be very helpful. SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are considered as the first line of medication option.  There are other medications available as well which you could discuss with your psychiatrist during the consultation. A combination of medication and psychotherapy has the strongest evidence for moderate to severe cases and has shown to produce the best outcomes.