pediatrics
Overview of Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents
Diagnosis
Psychiatric assessment Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth edition (DSM 5-TR) criteria Diagnosis of an anxiety disorder is through a clinical assessment ( Diagnosis reference ). A thorough psychosocial history can usually confirm it. Rating scales can be useful for screening. Several validated scales are freely available (Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders [SCARED] , Spence Children's Anxiety Scale [SCAS] , Preschool Anxiety Scale [PAS] , and General Anxiety Disorder-7 [GAD-7] ). The physical symptoms that anxiety can cause in children can complicate the evaluation. In many children, thorough testing for physical disorders is done before clinicians consider an anxiety disorder. 1.Walter HJ, Bukstein OG, Abright AR, et al: Clinical practice guideline for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with anxiety disorders.J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry59(10):1107-1124, 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.05.005 