Pediatric Separation Anxiety Disorder

Introduction to Pediatric Separation Anxiety Separation anxiety disorder is a common emotional disorder in childhood. When leaving home or relatives, there is seizure tension, inexplicable fear and anxiety, often accompanied by abnormalities of autonomic nervous system function. basic knowledge The proportion of illness: 0.005% of the specific population Susceptible people: young children Mode of infection: non-infectious Complications: malnutrition Pediatric school phobia

Causes of Pediatric Separation Anxiety Disorder

Causes

Predisposing factors for separation anxiety include mandatory separation, such as the death of a parent or mother, illness or divorced parents, which are prone to anxiety in children with genetic qualities.

Genetic factors (20%):

Children born to parents with anxiety disorders have a significantly higher incidence of anxiety disorders than those born to normal parents, and the same incidence of identical twin anxiety disorders can be as high as 50%, which indicates separation anxiety disorder and Genetics has a close relationship.

Parent-child attachment (30%):

Children with segregated anxiety usually stay with their mothers or fixed raisers and are not in contact with the outside world, while mothers tend to be too cherished, overprotective, do everything, and do things everywhere, so that children can become daring. Small, shy, strong dependence, unable to adapt to the weakness of the external environment and excessive attachment to the mother, once separated from the mother, it is prone to separation anxiety.

Impact of life events (35%):

Before the occurrence of segregation anxiety, there are often life events as incentives. Common life events are sudden separation from parents, frustration in kindergartens, and unfortunate accidents such as serious illness or death of relatives.

Pediatric Separation Anxiety Prevention

Pay attention to children's mental health, provide psychological health education counseling for mothers, eliminate adverse factors in family environment or family education, overcome parents' own weaknesses or neuroticism, provide parental biofeedback therapy (relaxation therapy), help children with full body relaxation training, cooperate Games, music therapy, etc., promote children's physical and mental health.

Pediatric separation anxiety disorder complications Complications, malnutrition, pediatric school phobia

Symptoms of autonomic nervous system dysfunction, such as palpitation, chest tightness, frequent urination, urgency, etc., prone to loss of appetite, gastrointestinal dysfunction, or malnutrition, difficulty falling asleep at night, restless sleep, inattention, learning Score deviations sometimes evolve into school phobias.

Symptoms of Pediatric Separation Anxiety Symptoms Common symptoms Anxiety, nausea, abdominal pain, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, selective mutism, stomach pain, child phobia

For isolated anxiety disorders, pediatricians should treat the disease from a developmental perspective. Normal septal anxiety occurs as early as 6-8 months in infants. After 3 years of age, when children understand and separate from attachment, it is temporary. Sexually, this normal anxiety disappears, so children diagnosed with this disease should be cautious before the age of 5, and children diagnosed 30 months ago will not be diagnosed.

Separation anxiety disorder is deeply disturbed when children are separated from their loved ones, and produces obvious anxiety. Most children often have no basis to worry that their loved ones will leave their own dangerous or accidental accidents, so they are unwilling to leave their relatives, not to go to kindergarten or refuse. Going to school, even if you barely enter the school, you are crying or struggling. Some children may have symptoms of autonomic nervous system dysfunction, vomiting, abdominal pain, headache, etc. The course of disease lasts for several months to several years.

Examination of pediatric seizure anxiety disorder

Chest X-ray, B-ultrasound and other tests have no special findings.

Diagnosis and diagnosis of childhood dissociative anxiety

diagnosis

Generally, according to the medical history and clinical manifestations, the diagnosis is not difficult. In the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Spiritual Society, the criteria for separation anxiety disorder are as follows:

1. 3 or more of the following anxiety symptoms

(1) People who leave home or close are experiencing excessive pain.

(2) Sustained and excessive anxiety to lose close people, or disasters may come to close people.

(3) Persistence and excessive anxiety The ominous things lead to separation from close people.

(4) Due to fear of separation, there is a persistent refusal to go to school or go elsewhere.

(5) People who are not close to each other, or who are not adults in other situations, are often too scared or unwilling to be alone.

(6) Without the companionship of close people, often refuse to go to bed, or do not want to sleep away from home.

(7) Repeated nightmares due to fear of separation.

(8) Repeated physical symptoms such as headache, stomach pain, nausea and vomiting when separated from close people.

2. The condition is at least 4 weeks.

3. The disease occurs before the age of 18.

4. Symptoms significantly affect social interaction, learning or other important functions.

5. The disease excludes generalized developmental disorders, schizophrenia, or other neurological disorders.

Differential diagnosis

1. Generalized anxiety disorder

Children have a wide range of anxiety, mainly because they are overly concerned about their ability, appearance and what they do, while dissociative anxiety is mainly caused by anxiety caused by separation.

OCD

Children with this condition can also have anxiety when they are away from home, but this is often a special kind of forced or ritual-like symptoms. These children are therefore reluctant to leave the family. In addition, children with obsessive-compulsive disorder have anxiety about their parents' safety. But this kind of thinking is irrational, even if parents can't be relieved in front of them, and children will be afraid of their aggressive impulses against their parents.

3. School phobia

When children have accidental trauma in school, they are afraid of school environment and refuse to go to school. This is different from the separation of anxiety from young children and the refusal to go to school. The latter is due to fear of separation.

The material in this site is intended to be of general informational use and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis, or recommended treatments.