Stress In The Family 'Is Anxiety Inherited'

It has been a well-known fact for several years that anxious parents may pass anxiety disorders on to their kids. Although this truth is well known, nobody is prepared to say yes to this question "is stress inherited". However, a recent study by the experts at Johns Hopkins Children's Centre, came up with the conclusion that a family-based program where parents and kids are being treated together, may reduce the symptoms and risks of stress and anxiety among these kids.

Each individual can get anxious from time to time, however when the problem starts taking over one's life, the condition is then called anxiety disorder. It could be extremely stress filled and cease individuals from living their lives fully. A lot of people with anxiety disorder may also have phobic disorders and develop anxiety attacks. For the study purposes, the Hopkins investigators looked over 40 kids from the ages between 7 and 12 years. The children were not diagnosed with anxiety disorder themselves but they all had at least one parent who was diagnosed with the condition.

What other evidence do we really need to answer the question "is anxiety inherited". Scientists randomly split the participants into two categories, with 20 of the kids and their families getting involved in an 8-week cognitive behavioural treatment program, while the other 20 were put on a waiting list and did not receive any treatment during the period of the research, but were offered therapy a year later. The CBT program, which consisted of one-hour-long weekly sessions, was centering on an improvement of problem-solving abilities, training about panic attacks, as well as assisted parents discover and change behaviours considered to contribute to anxiety in the children.

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

The results of the research revealed that within a period of 12 months, 30 per cent of the kids who did not engage in the treatment plan, acquired an anxiety disorder, in comparison to none of the kids who were enrolled in the family based treatment program. A 40 per cent decrease in anxiety symptoms throughout the year after the treatment program were independently reported by parents together with investigators who assessed the behaviour of the kids and their parents. There was no drop of anxiety symptoms noticed among children on the waiting list.

The parental behaviors personalized with treatment program included overprotection, excessive criticism and excessive expression of worry and stress in front of the children. The program targeted childhood risk factors like avoiding anxiety-provoking situations and anxious thoughts. As outlined by a recent editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, it is deterrence but not treatment, of childhood anxiety, which is of a primary importance, since anxiety disorder influence one in every 5 children in the USA, but often remain unrecognized. If not treated in time, the problem can result in depression, drug 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 research was funded by the US government's National Institute of Mental Health. Therefore "is anxiety inherited", yes. Are we able to change the pattern of behavior yes!

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