Anxiety In The Family 'Is Anxiety Inherited'

It has been a known fact for several years that anxious parents could pass panic disorders on to their children. Although this truth is well known, no one is prepared to say yes to this question "is anxiety inherited". But now, a new study by the experts at Johns Hopkins Children's Centre, put together the conclusion that a family-based program where parents and children are being treated together, can reduce the symptoms and risks of anxiety among these children.

Each individual can get anxious every once in awhile, but when the problem starts taking over one's life, the condition is then called anxiety disorder. It can be extremely stressful and stop people from living their lives fully. Many people with anxiety disorder might also have phobias and develop panic attacks. For the study purposes, the Hopkins investigators looked at 40 children from the ages between 7 and 12 years. The kids were not diagnosed with anxiety disorder themselves but they all had at least one parent who was diagnosed with the problem.

What other proof do we really need to answer the question "is anxiety inherited". Researchers randomly split the participants into two groups, with 20 of the children and their families taking part in an 8-week cognitive behavioural treatment program, while the other 20 were put on a waiting list and did not get any treatment during the period of the study, but were offered therapy one year later. The CBT program, which consisted of one-hour-long weekly sessions, was focusing on an improvement of problem-solving skills, instruction about panic attacks, and also helped parents discover and change behaviours believed to contribute to anxiety in the children.

The chief researcher of the study, Dr. Golda Ginsburg, PH.D., a child psychologist at Hopkins Children's Center and an associate professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, asserted that according to the figures gathered by the experts, the children of parents with an anxiety disorder are up to seven times more likely to develop the disorder themselves, and up to 65 per cent of kids who live with an anxious parent meet the criteria for panic attacks.

The actual outcome of the experiment revealed that within a period of 12 months, 30 per cent of the children who did not participate in the program, had developed an anxiety disorder, in comparison to 0 percent of the children who were enrolled in the family based therapy. A 40 per cent decrease in anxiety symptoms in the year after the therapy program were independently reported by parents along with investigators who assessed the behaviour of the children and their parents. There was no drop of anxiety symptoms observed among children on the waiting list.

The parental behaviors personalized with therapy program included overprotection, excessive criticism and excessive expression of fear and anxiety in front of the kids. The program targeted childhood risk factors like avoiding anxiety-provoking circumstances and anxious thoughts. According to a recent editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, it is deterrence and not treatment, of childhood anxiety, that is of a primary importance, because anxiety disorder affect one in every 5 children in America, but often are left unrecognized. If not addressed in time, the dilemma can lead to depression, substance abuse and poor academic performance throughout childhood years and way into adulthood.

Results of the research will be posted in the June issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The study was funded by the US government's National Institute of Mental Health. So "is anxiety inherited", yes. Can we change the pattern of behavior yes!

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