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Temperament and Anxiety Disorders

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Handbook of Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders

Abstract

Psychiatric illness is highly prevalent among children and adolescents. For example, Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, and Angold (2003) psychiatrically evaluated over one thousand children aged 9 to 13 years yearly until age 16 years. The 3-month prevalence of any disorder was 13%. However, over the course of the study, 31% of girls and 42% of boys had at least one psychiatric disorder meeting DSM-IV criteria. In children and adolescents in the general population, anxiety disorders are particularly common, with a lifetime prevalence of 29% (Costello, Egger, & Angold, 2005). The median age of onset for anxiety disorders (11 years old) is earlier than that for other mental illnesses (Kessler et al., 2007). The age of onset varies for specific disorders. For example, in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, median ages of onset in years were as follows: 7 for specific phobia and separation anxiety disorder, 13 for social phobia, 19 for obsessive compulsive disorder, 20 for agoraphobia without panic, 23 for post-traumatic stress disorder, 24 for panic disorder, and 31 for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) (Kessler et al., 2005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 North Wolfe Street – Meyer 113, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA

    Elizabeth C. Winter

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  1. Elizabeth C. Winter
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  2. O. Joseph Bienvenu
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Correspondence to Elizabeth C. Winter .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Psychology, Fordham University, East Fordham Road 441, Bronx, 10458, New York, USA

    Dean McKay

  2. , Departments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, a, University of South Florida, Tampa, 33612, Florida, USA

    Eric A. Storch

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Winter, E.C., Bienvenu, O.J. (2011). Temperament and Anxiety Disorders. In: McKay, D., Storch, E. (eds) Handbook of Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7784-7_14

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