Research into Anxiety Disorders

Childhood Anxiety Related to Adult Anxiety

There have been major advances in research on childhood anxiety over the past five years. A significant proportion of this research has been conducted at Columbia University. Some of the most promising findings note the close ties between anxiety in childhood and adulthood. Hence, children with an anxiety disorder often have parents with an anxiety disorder, and a larger proportion of adults with anxiety report suffering from an anxiety disorder in childhood. The biological correlates and treatments of anxiety are also similar for children and adults. Other particularly exciting findings note a relationship between infectious illnesses involving Streptococcal bacteria and childhood obsessive compulsive disorder. This suggests possible new avenues for prevention and treatment of this debilitating illness. If you think that your child suffers from an anxiety disorder, it might be important to learn about these exciting areas of research.

Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Washers

This research involves assessing the effectiveness of three treatments in the management of OCD. All three treatments (response prevention, clomipramine and danger ideation reduction therapy) have already been shown to be beneficial for some sufferers. For example, Foa et al (1985) reported that 51% of sufferers achieved 'marked improvement' (defined as a 70% reduction in symptoms) and thirty-nine percent of patients achieved symptom reductions ranging from 31-69%. Results of the Clomipramine Collaborative Study Group (1991) involving 520 patients found an average decrease in symptoms of 43% with clomipramine treatment compared to a 4% decrease with placebo. Further, in an initial trial of danger ideation reduction therapy, Jones and Menzies (in press) reported substantial reductions on all four outcome measures at post-treatment for all three subjects.

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