IntroductionThere is evidence that anxiety and depressive symptoms may lead individuals to under-estimate their own sleep quality, particularly among younger subjects (aged <45 yrs).ObjectivesThe aim ...of this study was to investigate the discrepancy between objective and subjective measurements of sleep quality in a sample of healthy control subjects (HCs) with no Axis I mental disorders, and the possible impact of panic-agoraphobic spectrum symptoms.MethodsA total of 117 HCs (65 males and 97 females; Age: 35.3±14yrs) were evaluated by the: Panic Agoraphobic Spectrum-Self Report (PAS-SR), to investigate panic spectrum; the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and actigraphy, respectively for the subjective and the objective sleep efficiency (SE) measures. Groups were divided according to the congruence between SE-actigraphic vs SE-PSQI (“Accurate”, “Underestimate”, “Overestimate”), establishing as a threshold an SE>85% as a measure of good SE. Regression analyses were conducted to assess the association between PAS-SR domains and the discrepancy between objective and subjective measurements, controlling confounding factors such as age, gender and BMIResultsSince our data showed that a low sleep quality was associated with a greater age and that higher PAS-SR scores were associated with younger age, we used a sub-sample of 117 participants with age <45 years and comparing the 3 groups of subjects created on the basis of the discrepancy: Accurate, N = 74 (63.2 %), “Overestimate group”, N= 23 (19.7 %), “Underestimate group”: N=20 (17.1 %), we found a statistically significant difference among groups in the PAS.SR separation anxiety domain (p value=0.032), with a multinomial regression model confirming this domain contributed significantly to the differentiation between the three groups with higher symptoms being associated with a higher probability of belonging to the “underestimate” group.ConclusionsOur results suggest that the discrepancy between objective and subjective sleep efficiency measurements in HCs could be affected by panic spectrum symptoms, particularly separation anxiety.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
Awareness of adult separation anxiety (ASA) is growing, but there is a dearth of knowledge about how separation anxiety aggregates in families. We examined the intergenerational associations of ...separation anxiety and other forms of internalizing problems in an American community sample of 515 predominantly white children and their parents.
Children's separation anxiety (CSA), depression, and other anxiety disorders were modeled as latent factors using diagnoses from interviews and symptom scores from questionnaires completed by mothers, fathers, and children when children were 9 years old and again 3 years later. Parents' separation anxiety was assessed via a questionnaire and parents' other anxiety, depressive, and substance use disorders were assessed with a diagnostic interview when children were nine. Relationships between parents' and children's psychopathology were modeled using s.e.m.
Mothers' and fathers' ASA were related to all three psychopathology factors in offspring, over and above other parental disorders, in concurrent and prospective analyses. CSA was also related to maternal depression concurrently and prospectively and to maternal anxiety prospectively. Of all paternal psychopathology variables, only ASA was significantly related to children's psychopathology in either model.
Results indicate that parental separation anxiety is an important, but non-specific, risk factor for children's psychopathology. The pathway by which this risk is transmitted may be genetic or environmental, and the observed statistical associations likely also encompass child-to-parent effects.
Background: Addressing the challenges within the educational system during the early years of schooling stands as a crucial focus for researchers. Despite the necessity of exploring school-related ...fears and their influencing factors, there remains a scarcity of research in this domain. Aims: The purpose of this research was to investigate the efficacy of storytelling on school phobia and separation anxiety among students in the first- grade of elementary school in Shiraz. Methods: The present research employed a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The study population consisted of all first-grade elementary students in Shiraz during the academic year 2022-2023. Thirty eligible students were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. After confirming the absence of significant differences between the control and experimental groups, a storytelling intervention program was implemented for the experimental group, utilizing a collection of books by Parirukh and Majid (2015) along with other educational materials. No intervention program was provided to the control group. The Anxiety-Related Disorders Questionnaire developed by Bimamar (1999) was used to measure two subscales: school phobia and separation anxiety, both administered before and after the intervention. Data analysis was conducted using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS version 25. Results: The results of the covariance analysis revealed a significant difference in the mean scores of school phobia and separation anxiety between the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up assessments (p < 0.05) for the experimental group. Specifically, the scores in the experimental group decreased significantly at the post-test and follow-up stages. In contrast, there was no significant change observed in the scores of the control group across these assessments. Conclusion: The findings of the present study demonstrate that storytelling is effective in reducing separation anxiety and fear of school among students. Avoiding school can lead to serious consequences, including harm and social deviance. Students who skip school may be more susceptible to delinquent behaviors and jeopardize their future careers. Storytelling emerges as an accessible and effective intervention to alleviate children's fears and anxieties related to school. Moreover, parents can be trained in storytelling techniques to motivate their children to attend school and engage positively in the educational environment.
Separation anxiety disorder is distress about separation from home or from close attachment figures that is unusual for a person's age and developmental stage. A close attachment figure is a person ...with whom an individual has a lasting social and emotional relationship, often a parent, caregiver, or spouse. The diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder used to only apply to children, but in 2013 it was broadened to include adults in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Risk factors for separation anxiety disorder include a family history of anxiety disorders; trauma or loss such as illness or death of an attachment figure; life stresses such as parental conflict or divorce; and changes in environment like moving to a new school or home.
Smartphones provide many advantages for people's daily life, which makes the phone become a valuable attachment object. Attachment to a smartphone may have negative psychological consequences, such ...as anxiety about being separated from the smartphone. Considerable research has been done on smartphone separation anxiety (or nomophobia). However, they are rarely concerned about the impact of smartphone activity on it. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of mobile activity on smartphone separation anxiety by emphasizing the uniqueness of the phone itself and the importance of the activity. The present study examined the anxiety levels of 1733 Chinese young adults (mean age = 19.13, SD = 1.28) in four imaginary scenarios in which they could not engage in mobile activity. Our study found that computers did not alleviate the separation anxiety that individuals experience when they interrupt their smartphone activity. Furthermore, smartphone separation anxiety may depend on the type of mobile activity currently being disrupted. The anxiety when interrupting online activities was more related to the unavailability of the phone network, and anxiety level in stopping offline activities was more associated with the unavailability of the phone power. These findings help to understand smartphone separation anxiety.
•Computers did not alleviate the anxiety from disrupting smartphone activity.•The unavailable phone power affected anxiety from stopping offline activities.•The unavailable phone network affected anxiety from interrupting online activities.
Emerging adulthood concerns the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It foresees the separation from the family and the creation of new significant relationships, whereby specific attachment ...styles might be triggered when facing these challenges. The present study investigates the influence of retrospective memories associated with childhood separation anxiety symptoms upon emerging adults’ romantic avoidant vs. anxious attachment styles including adult separation anxiety symptoms as mediators. Age and gender were included as covariates. A community sample of N = 394 Italian emerging adults (Mage = 23.64, SD = 4.00, 70% females) completed self-report measures. The results showed that the participants presented a greater anxious attachment rather than an avoidant attachment style. Moreover, both adult separation anxiety and the memories of early separation anxiety were positively and significantly associated with anxious attachment and not with avoidant attachment. A mediation model conducted and focused on anxious attachment showed that, although not directly associated, child separation anxiety did show a significant positive indirect effect on anxious attachment as mediated by adult separation anxiety symptoms. Thus, the findings highlighted the influence of adult separation anxiety symptoms and retrospective childhood memories of separation anxiety upon anxious adult romantic attachment, yet not on avoidant attachment style. Clinical implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.
Objective: We sought to examine predictors and moderators of treatment outcomes among 488 youths ages 7-17 years (50% female; 74% ≤ 12 years) meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental ...Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) criteria for diagnoses of separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, or generalized anxiety disorder who were randomly assigned to receive either cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), sertraline (SRT), their combination (COMB), or medication management with pill placebo (PBO) in the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS). Method: Six classes of predictor and moderator variables (22 variables) were identified from the literature and examined using continuous (Pediatric Anxiety Ratings Scale; PARS) and categorical (Clinical Global Impression Scale-Improvement; CGI-I) outcome measures. Results: Three baseline variables predicted better outcomes (independent of treatment condition) on the PARS, including low anxiety severity (as measured by parents and independent evaluators) and caregiver strain. No baseline variables were found to predict Week 12 responder status (CGI-I). Participants' principal diagnosis moderated treatment outcomes but only on the PARS. No baseline variables were found to moderate treatment outcomes on Week 12 responder status (CGI-I). Discussion: Overall, anxious children responded favorably to CAMS treatments. However, having more severe and impairing anxiety, greater caregiver strain, and a principal diagnosis of social phobia were associated with less favorable outcomes. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
This study aimed to examine attachment and adult separation anxiety (ASA) among women who lost a parent in their youth. We hypothesized that insecure attachment and increased ASA from a romantic ...partner would be found among women who have lost a parent in youth, compared to women whose parents were both alive. Sixty women who lost one or both parents in their youth and 60 who had living parents participated in the study (mean age: 32.3, range: 18–62 years). Participants filled out the ASA and Short Attachment questionnaires. Women who lost a parent reported higher levels of anxious attachment and ASA from partner; the two groups did not differ, however, in terms of avoidant attachment. Additionally, similar effects on ASA and attachment were found among adult women who lost a father or a mother in their youth. In conclusion, the loss of a parent early in life may be associated with an insecure attachment style and increased ASA.
Anxiety disorders Penninx, Brenda WJH; Pine, Daniel S; Holmes, Emily A ...
The Lancet,
03/2021, Letnik:
397, Številka:
10277
Journal Article
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Anxiety disorders form the most common group of mental disorders and generally start before or in early adulthood. Core features include excessive fear and anxiety or avoidance of perceived threats ...that are persistent and impairing. Anxiety disorders involve dysfunction in brain circuits that respond to danger. Risk for anxiety disorders is influenced by genetic factors, environmental factors, and their epigenetic relations. Anxiety disorders are often comorbid with one another and with other mental disorders, especially depression, as well as with somatic disorders. Such comorbidity generally signifies more severe symptoms, greater clinical burden, and greater treatment difficulty. Reducing the large burden of disease from anxiety disorders in individuals and worldwide can be best achieved by timely, accurate disease detection and adequate treatment administration, scaling up of treatments when needed. Evidence-based psychotherapy (particularly cognitive behavioural therapy) and psychoactive medications (particularly serotonergic compounds) are both effective, facilitating patients' choices in therapeutic decisions. Although promising, no enduring preventive measures are available, and, along with frequent therapy resistance, clinical needs remain unaddressed. Ongoing research efforts tackle these problems, and future efforts should seek individualised, more effective approaches for treatment with precision medicine.
The clinical illustration presented here showcases the psychotherapeutic benefits of art therapy for children experiencing separation anxiety. Its containing quality facilitates the reconstruction of ...internal and external boundaries and fosters a sense of personal integrity. By stimulating creativity, imagination, and the projection of internal fears, art therapy enables children to process and express their emotions effectively, leading to improved emotional regulation and coping mechanisms. Separation anxiety can give rise to social and academic adaptation difficulties, which are often associated with learning challenges and academic failures. Based on this, we concluded through an experiment that introducing art therapy, as a form of mental health care for these children, is highly beneficial for improving their well-being.
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