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Stress And Anxiety In The Family 'Is Anxiety Inherited'
It has been a well-known fact for quite some time that anxious parents can pass anxiety disorders on to their kids. Although this fact is well known, nobody is prepared to say yes to this question "is anxiety inherited". However, a recent study by the scientists 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 aid in eliminating the symptoms and risks of anxiousness among these children.
Each person can get fearful every once in awhile, but when the problem starts taking over one's life, the problem is then called anxiety disorder. It can be extremely stress filled and stop individuals from living their lives wholly. A lot of people with anxiety disorder might also have fears and develop anxiety attacks. For the study purposes, the Hopkins investigators looked over 40 children 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 problem.
What other evidence do we really need to answer the question "is anxiety inherited". Investigators randomly split the participants into two groups, with 20 of the children and their families getting involved in an 8-week intellectual behavioural therapy 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 treatment a year later. The CBT program, which consisted of one-hour-long weekly sessions, was centering on an improvement of problem-solving skills, training about panic attacks, as well as assisted parents find out and change behaviours considered to contribute to anxiety in the kids.
The chief researcher 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 gathered by the analysts, 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 reside with an anxious parent meet the criteria for panic attacks.
The actual outcome of the experiment discovered that within a period of 12 months, 30 per cent of the kids who did not engage in the therapy program, had developed an anxiety disorder, compared to none of the kids who were engaged in the family based therapy. A 40 per cent reduction in anxiety symptoms throughout the year after the therapy program were independently reported by parents along with researchers who assessed the behaviour of the children 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 circumstances and anxious thoughts. As outlined by a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine, it is deterrence but not treatment, of childhood anxiety, that is of a primary importance, because anxiety disorder affect one in every 5 children in the USA, but often remain unrecognized. If not treated on time, the problem can lead to depression, substance abuse and poor academic performance throughout childhood years and way into adulthood.
Results of the study will be published 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. Are we able to change the pattern of behavior yes!
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