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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 children. Although this truth is well known, nobody is prepared to say yes to this question "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 kids are treated together, can reduce the symptoms and risks of anxiousness among these kids.
Each individual could possibly get anxious every once in awhile, however when the problem starts taking over one's life, the problem is then called anxiety disorder. It can be really nerve-racking and cease people from living their lives fully. Some individuals with anxiety disorder may also have phobias and develop anxiety attacks. For the study purposes, the Hopkins researchers 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 problem.
What other proof do we really need to answer the query "is anxiety inherited". Investigators randomly divided the participants into two groups, with 20 of the children and their families taking part in an 8-week intellectual behavioural therapy 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, that consisted of one-hour-long weekly sessions, was focusing on an improvement of problem-solving abilities, training regarding anxiety disorder, and also assisted parents find out and change behaviours considered to contribute to anxiety in the kids.
The main investigator of the study, Dr. Golda Ginsburg, PH.D., a child psychologist at Hopkins Children's Center and an associate teacher of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said that according to the figures gathered by the analysts, the children of parents with an anxiety disorder are around seven times more likely 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 actual outcome of the research discovered that within a period of 12 months, 30 per cent of the kids that did not participate in the therapy program, acquired an anxiety problem, compared to 0 percent of the children who were engaged 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 researchers who analyzed 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, extreme criticism and excessive expression of worry and anxiety in front of the kids. 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 and not treatment, of childhood anxiety, that is of a primary importance, as anxiety disorder influence one in every 5 children in America, but very often are left unacknowledged. If not treated in time, the problem can lead to depression, drug abuse and poor academic performance all through childhood years and way into adulthood.
Results of the study will be publicized in the June issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The research was financed by the US government's National Institute of Mental Health. Thus "is stress inherited", yes. Can we change the pattern of behavior yes! |
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