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Anxiety in children prevalent

Some of doctor's most stressed-out patients are children

Date published: 5/28/2006

TENSION, irritability, palpitations, insomnia, head- aches, abdominal pain, diarrhea. What kind of neurotic would have this constellation of symptoms? I would picture some hard-boiled type-A executive in an overly demanding job, with a terrible commute and maybe a marriage on the rocks.

Wrong. These are all symptoms I have seen recently in school kids.

There is this tendency to think of teenagers as lollygagging and carefree, but often this is not the case. And far from teaching our kids strategies to stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives on how to deal with stress, schools are compounding the problem with their frenetic schedules, competitive atmosphere and requirement to learn such mind-numbing esoterica as advanced-placement algebra.

It may be perverse to write about stressed school kids when the school year is about to end and they're all going to hang loose for three months--or so I thought. One college student just home for the summer put me right. She jumped down my throat when I quipped about three months of sleeping in. "I'm going to be working three jobs. Someone's got to pay the tuition."

Overly mature perfectionists who showed tension, irritability, apprehension, need for reassurance and negative self-image is the profile that researchers at the University of Texas came up with in a study on generalized anxiety disorder in children and adolescents. About 72 percent had physical complaints, as well, such as headaches, abdominal pains and heart palpitations. These problems are what often lead anxious patients to my door.

Generalized anxiety disorder is a very common disease in adults, and it causes or aggravates many of the illnesses we see in the office. But it has its roots in childhood. In another study, on cognitive behavioral treatment of GAD in adolescents in Canada, the authors note that "in most patients, GAD develops gradually during adolescence."

Closer to home, the people who see stressed kids up close and personal are the school counselors, says Carol Houchin, director of counseling at North Stafford High School. Anxiety and anger are what they see a lot of, she says.

Often, a child will deny feeling angry. "But if you take a few more minutes, oftentimes the kid will open up," Houchin says.

DR. PATRICK NEUSTATTER is a family practitioner with Pratt Medical Center in North Stafford.

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Date published: 5/28/2006