Temperament and Anxiety Disorders

Abstract

Psychiatric illness is highly prevalent among children and adolescents. For example, Costello, Mustillo, Erkanii, Keeler, and Angold (2003) psychiatrically evaluated over one thousand children aged 9 to 13 years yearly until age 16 years. The 3-month prevalence of any disorder was 13%. However, over the course of the study, 31% of girls and 42% of boys had at least one psychiatric disorder meeting DSM-IV criteria. In children and adolescents in the general population, anxiety disorders are particularly common, with a lifetime prevalence of 29% (Costello, Egger, & Angold, 2005). The median age of onset for anxiety disorders (11 years old) is earlier than that for other mental illnesses (Kessler et al., 2007). The age of onset varies for specific disorders. For example, in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, median ages of onset in years were as follows: 7 for specific phobia and separation anxiety disorder, 13 for social phobia, 19 for obsessive compulsive disorder, 20 for agoraphobia without panic, 23 for post-traumatic stress disorder, 24 for panic disorder, and 31 for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) (Kessler et al., 2005). Unfortunately, despite the pervasiveness of these disorders, less than one-third of children receive treatment. For example, Chavira, Stein, Bailey, and Stein (2004) reported that, of children with a diagnosis of any anxiety disorder, only 31% received medication or psychotherapy, compared with 40% of children with major depression or 79% of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Lack of treatment for mental illness is not unique to the United States. The WHO World Mental Health Survey Consortium's report (2004) found that 36-50% of people with major mental illness in developed countries—and a staggering 76-85% in less developed countries—received no mental health treatment in the preceding year. Anxiety disorders can be debilitating and generate significant burden for the sufferers and their families. Clearly more work needs to be done to identify children who either are at risk for developing anxiety or have already developed symptoms of anxiety, so that they benefit from prevention or early intervention (Bienvenu & Ginsburg, 2007). As outlined in this chapter, temperamental traits are promising as easy-to-measure risk factors, markers of risk, or correlates of anxiety disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)(chapter)