Generalised anxiety disorder in children and adolescents

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) in a child or adolescent is excessive worry and tension about everyday events that the child or adolescent cannot control and that is expressed on most days for at least 6 months, to the extent that there is distress or difficulty in performing day-to-day tasks. METHODS AND OUTCOMES: We conducted a systematic overview, aiming to answer the following clinical question: What are the effects of pharmacological treatments for generalised anxiety disorder in children and adolescents? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to August 2014 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). RESULTS: At this update, searching of electronic databases retrieved 949 studies. After deduplication and removal of conference abstracts, 417 records were screened for inclusion in the overview. Appraisal of titles and abstracts led to the exclusion of 310 studies and the further review of 107 full publications. Of the 107 full articles evaluated, one systematic review was added at this update. We performed a GRADE evaluation for six PICO combinations. CONCLUSIONS: In this systematic overview, we categorised the efficacy for six interventions based on information about the effectiveness and safety of antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, buspirone, hydroxyzine, and pregabalin.