**Introduction**

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Anxiety Disorders and the**

**Introductory Chapter: Anxiety Disorders and the** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.82737

In the first ideas of this book, we were much concerned about the children with an anxiety disorder and the children whose parents were diagnosed with any anxiety disorders in their lifetime. So, we are eager to check out the different types of anxiety disorders with different

Different anxiety disorders stand out in the center of many psychiatric conditions, independent of developmental periods and age. Accordingly, different anxiety issues play an important role in the psychopathology of a child and adolescent development. Today, we can detect childhood fears earlier and evaluate them as the pioneer of many adult psychiatric disorders. Epidemiological studies on child and adolescent psychopathology have been conducted since the 1980s. Especially, studies on childhood anxiety are the most common. In this way, risk factors are better determined, leading symptoms are recognized and accordingly prevented,

The developmental perspective will support a better understanding of the development of anxiety disorders and transition from childhood to adulthood. Developmental psychopathology is concerned with the causes and prognosis of improper misconduct and examines normal and pathological behaviors in the perspective of development. Its predecessors are

Each developmental period has its own developmental tasks. As Robert Havighurst described in 1948, development is a lifelong process and different life duties must be fulfilled in each life period [1]. In the meantime, the child is considered as an active learner in continuous communication with his environment. Successful completion of these developmental tasks will ensure that the child and the adolescent maintain their mental health in a healthy way. If these

Thomas Achenbach, Dante Cicchetti, Michael Rutter, and Alan Sroufe.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Nese Kocabasoğlu and R. Hülya Bingöl Çağlayan

Nese Kocabasoğlu and R. Hülya Bingöl Çağlayan

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82737

and therapeutic strategies are developed.

**Precursors**

**1. Introduction**

underlying mechanisms.

**Precursors**

#### **Introductory Chapter: Anxiety Disorders and the Precursors Introductory Chapter: Anxiety Disorders and the Precursors**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.82737

Nese Kocabasoğlu and R. Hülya Bingöl Çağlayan Nese Kocabasoğlu and R. Hülya Bingöl Çağlayan

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82737

**1. Introduction**

In the first ideas of this book, we were much concerned about the children with an anxiety disorder and the children whose parents were diagnosed with any anxiety disorders in their lifetime. So, we are eager to check out the different types of anxiety disorders with different underlying mechanisms.

Different anxiety disorders stand out in the center of many psychiatric conditions, independent of developmental periods and age. Accordingly, different anxiety issues play an important role in the psychopathology of a child and adolescent development. Today, we can detect childhood fears earlier and evaluate them as the pioneer of many adult psychiatric disorders.

Epidemiological studies on child and adolescent psychopathology have been conducted since the 1980s. Especially, studies on childhood anxiety are the most common. In this way, risk factors are better determined, leading symptoms are recognized and accordingly prevented, and therapeutic strategies are developed.

The developmental perspective will support a better understanding of the development of anxiety disorders and transition from childhood to adulthood. Developmental psychopathology is concerned with the causes and prognosis of improper misconduct and examines normal and pathological behaviors in the perspective of development. Its predecessors are Thomas Achenbach, Dante Cicchetti, Michael Rutter, and Alan Sroufe.

Each developmental period has its own developmental tasks. As Robert Havighurst described in 1948, development is a lifelong process and different life duties must be fulfilled in each life period [1]. In the meantime, the child is considered as an active learner in continuous communication with his environment. Successful completion of these developmental tasks will ensure that the child and the adolescent maintain their mental health in a healthy way. If these

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

tasks are not fulfilled, it will lead to loss of happiness, loss of success, exclusion by society, and consequently loss of other related development tasks.

Risk is defined as the probability of developing an individual's disease within a certain period

Introductory Chapter: Anxiety Disorders and the Precursors

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82737

5

Kraemer et al. [5] identified different risk factors. The first step is whether the risk related to the disease occurs concurrently with the disease. Risk factors that are spontaneous or can be

In family research, the incidence of the same disorder is screened in the relatives of people with psychiatric disorders. A number of family studies reported that panic disorder showed familial frequency [21, 22]. In recent years, the subject is frequently investigated and the

In the last family researches conducted by Cynthia Last, [8] 83% of the children diagnosed with separation anxiety were found to meet the anxiety disorder criteria at their mothers'

About 57% meet the criteria of an anxiety disorder at the time of research. The second major study by Last [9]. Relatives of children with anxiety disorders, relatives of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and relatives of children without any psychiatric diagnosis were included in the study. Anxiety disorder was found in 40.4% of the parents of children with anxiety disorders. In the other two groups, anxiety disorder was quite low. The most common type of anxiety disorder among children with anxiety disorders is excessive anxiety (18.9%) and phobic disorder (11.7%). Panic disorder, social phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and avoidant personality disorders are more common in the relatives of children with

Children with a diagnosis of anxiety disorder in their parents have a higher risk of developing anxiety disorder. Both axis studies indicate familial clustering in anxiety disorders. Evidence of more specific transitions, especially in panic disorder and social phobia, was

The effect of biological risk factors on the development of childhood and adolescent anxiety disorders was investigated in few studies. Studies on the subject were mostly conducted using adult subjects. In these studies, locus ceruleus, sympathetic system, and HPA axis were investigated. It has been shown that the levels of cortisol increases in the stress of normal children [10]. In studies with children with social anxiety, it was observed that heart rate increased compared to normal children. Kagan [11] found the low stimulus threshold with the participation of the amygdala and hypothalamus in the limbic system in children with

Shaffer et al. [12] argued that some of the signals could be interpreted as an anxiety disorder precursor. The parents of children with agora phobia were found to be more frequent than the

children who had motor-mild symptoms without the agoraphobia (Kaplan et al. [13]).

changed as a result of any intervention are defined as variable risk factors.

relationship between the anxiety of children and the anxiety of parents [6, 7].

of time.

lifetime.

obtained.

anxiety.

*1.2.2. Biological risk factors*

*1.2.1. Family as a risk factor*

anxiety disorders than in the control group.

Anxiety formation can be understood as the fulfillment of developmental tasks in this background in a way that is not appropriate for the development period. For example, the development of separation anxiety is facilitated if the autonomy development, which is the assignment of the age of 3, is not successful.

An important developmental task of childhood is emotion control. Strategies used in emotion control of children are important in understanding clinical anxiety disorders.
