It has been a well-known fact for several years that anxious parents may pass panic disorders on to their children. Although this truth is well known, no one is prepared to say yes to this question "is anxiety inherited". However, a new study by the experts at Johns Hopkins Children's Centre, put together the conclusion that a family-based program where parents and kids are being treated together, can reduce the symptoms and risks of anxiousness among these kids.
Each person could possibly 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 nerve-racking and cease people from living their lives wholly. Some individuals with anxiety disorder may also have phobic disorders and develop panic attacks. For the study purposes, the Hopkins investigators looked over 40 children from the ages between 7 and 12 years. The children were not clinically determined to have 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 question "is anxiety inherited". Researchers randomly split the participants into two groups, 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 get any treatment during the period of the research, but were offered therapy one year later. The CBT program, that consisted of one-hour-long weekly sessions, was working on an improvement of problem-solving abilities, instruction regarding anxiety disorder, as well as assisted parents discover and change behaviours believed to contribute to anxiety in the children.
The chief researcher 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, asserted that according to the statistics obtained by the analysts, the kids of parents with an anxiety disorder are up to seven times more prone to develop the disorder themselves, and up to 65 per cent of children who live with an anxious parent meet the criteria for panic attacks.
The results of the research discovered that within a period of 12 months, 30 per cent of the kids that did not participate in the program, acquired an anxiety disorder, in comparison to none of the children who were engaged in the family based therapy. A 40 per cent decrease in anxiety symptoms in the year after the therapy program were independently reported by parents together 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 therapy program included overprotection, extreme criticism and excessive expression of fear and stress in front of the kids. The program focused on childhood risk factors like avoiding anxiety-provoking situations and anxious thoughts. As outlined by a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine, it is deterrence and not treatment, of childhood anxiousness, which is of a primary importance, as anxiety disorder influence one in every 5 kids in the USA, but often remain unrecognized. If not addressed on time, the dilemma can result in depression, drug abuse and poor academic performance all through 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. Thus "is stress inherited", yes. Are we able to change the pattern of behavior yes!