Reducing Fear During Childhood to Prevent Anxiety Disorders Later: Insights From Developmental Psychobiology

Abstract

Anxiety disorders are neurodevelopmental with the median age of onset 10 to 11 years, but developmental processes underlying fear and anxiety are rarely investigated. In the last decade, however, developmental rodent studies have increased our understanding of how to treat and prevent the persistence of anxiety. Behavioral findings from rodent studies match the observations in anxious children, and the neural and molecular findings help explain why anxiety disorders are indeed neurodevelopmental. Extinction processes that are involved in cognitive-behavioral therapy appear particularly effective in children compared with older populations. Policy should mandate school psychologists and government subsidies for therapy sessions to increase children’s mental-health-service utilization. Funding bodies also should challenge anxiety studies exclusively targeting adults to include younger people to investigate why anxiety disorders are developmental disorders and focus more on preventing their persistence later in life.