Middle childhood
27
Anxiety Disorders in Children
and Adolescents
Aaron Vallance and Elena Garralda
Academic Unit of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Imperial College London, London, UK
Anxiety is an unpleasant feeling of tension
or apprehension accompanied by physiological
changes and worries or fears. It can become
maladaptive if excessive or developmentally inap-
propriate; if it also causes significant functional
impairment, it can be considered to be an anxiety
disorder.
It is important to bear in mind developmental
differences in the presentation of normal anxiety
and anxiety disorders (Table 27.1). Cognitive skill
endows adolescents with the capacity to imagine
and ruminate on increasingly complex and abstract
threats. What is seen as normal for a young child
may be considered a disorder in an older child.
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