It has been a well-known fact for many years that anxious parents can pass anxiety disorders on to their children. Although this truth is well known, no one is prepared to say yes to this query "is stress inherited". However, a new study by the scientists at Johns Hopkins Children's Centre, came up with the conclusion that a family-based program where parents and children are being treated together, can help to eliminate the symptoms and risks of stress and anxiety among these kids.
Each person can get fearful from time to time, but when the problem starts taking over one's life, the condition is then called anxiety disorder. It can be extremely stress filled and cease people from living their lives fully. Some individuals with anxiety disorder may also have fears and develop panic attacks. For the study purposes, the Hopkins investigators looked over 40 kids from the ages between 7 and 12 years. The kids were not diagnosed with anxiety disorder themselves but all of them had at least one parent who was diagnosed with the condition.
What other proof do we really need to answer the question "is anxiety inherited". Researchers randomly split the participants into two categories, with 20 of the kids and their families taking part in an 8-week cognitive behavioural therapy program, while the other 20 were put on a waiting list and did not receive 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 centering on an improvement of problem-solving abilities, instruction about anxiety disorder, as well as helped parents discover and change behaviours believed to contribute to anxiety in the children.
The main investigator 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, said that according to the statistics gathered by the experts, the children of parents with an anxiety disorder are up to seven times more prone to develop the disorder themselves, and around 65 per cent of kids who reside with an anxious parent meet the criteria for anxiety disorder.
The results of the experiment revealed that within a period of 12 months, 30 per cent of the children who did not engage in the treatment plan, had developed an anxiety disorder, compared to none of the children who were enrolled in the family based therapy. A 40 per cent decrease in anxiety symptoms throughout the year after the treatment program were independently reported by parents along with investigators who analyzed the behaviour of the kids 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 worry and stress in front of the kids. The program targeted childhood risk factors such as avoiding anxiety-provoking situations and anxious thoughts. According to a recent editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, it is deterrence and not treatment, of childhood anxiety, which is of a primary importance, since anxiety disorder affect one in every 5 children in the United States, but very often are left unrecognized. If not addressed in time, the problem can result in 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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