Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Childhood Anxiety and Depression

By: Dr Wagner is the Marie B. Gale Centennial Professor and vice chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

For both depression and anxiety disorders in youths, there is increasing evidence of clinical benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).

Anxiety disorders

Both SSRIs and CBT individually have been shown to be effective in the treatment of children with anxiety disorders. A recent large randomized controlled trial examined the combined efficacy of these treatments in 488 children and adolescents (aged 7 to 17 years) who had anxiety disorder (separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, or generalized anxiety disorder).1...More