Treating the Children of Anxious Parents

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center have found that when one or both parents has an anxiety disorder, therapy involving a family-based program was effecting in reducing anxiety symptoms among the kids and subsequently the risk of these children developing their own anxiety issues later in life.

Newswise has the details of the study, which although small in sample size (40 kids between the ages of 7-12), seems promising. From the study:

Within a year, 30 percent of the children in the no-intervention group had developed an anxiety disorder, compared to none of the children who participated in the family-based therapy. Parents along with researchers who evaluated the children and their parents independently reported a 40-percent drop in anxiety symptoms in the year following the prevention program. There was no reduction of anxiety symptoms among children on the waiting list.

That seems like a statistically significant percentage to me. Not just the children benefit from the therapy, either. Parents were able to develop coping mechanisms and modify their behaviors in several areas, such as “overprotection, excessive criticism and excessive expression of fear and anxiety in front of the children.”

Hopkins is now hoping to expand the study to 100 families. For more information, email CAPS@jhmi.edu .

When Adult Patients Have Anxiety Disorder, Their Children Need Help Too , via Newswise