Question:
Does anyone have information about the earliest age at which children have
been diagnosed with Panic Disorder, as opposed to panic attacks.
I am working with a student that I suspect has Panic Disorder and this
question has come up in discussion.
Answer:
The student with whom I am working is a chronic school refuser. He is 13 and
has barely attended since Grade 4. From my personal experience and that of
colleagues we believe that there is a leap in the onset of panic disorder
around puberty. We do not know of any students who have been diagnosed in
early primary (elementary) school. Hence the question.
earlier manifestations of panic in very young children is differently expressed
the it is with adults since they lack the ability to articulate what they are
experiencing. It has been demonstrated in children as young as 7,8,9 as this is
when some higher level cognitive skills become developed-avoidence may not be
the primary manifestation in anxiety but may be in a depression-so it's a slick
call and in many ways moot-since the treatment will most certainly include
pharmaceuticals-one of the biggest in the states for ped use is maprotiline and
some ssri's like zoloft and paxil-benzo use sadly is withheld until the docs
are backed into a corner-much effort in the behavioral modifications goes a
long way...
How does this apply to a kid who (at 13) has recently been assessed as
having an intellectual disability? I have had a lot of success with school
refusers but I'm going to have to work pretty hard with this one. Mind you
persistence does tend to pay off.
do you mean a learning disability like attention defecit or some other
nuerobiological preventor of his learning??? Avoidence is avoidence-if he is
not going to school due to his inabilities or his fear of failure due to
learning problems then this is different then having a clean cut anxiety
disorder-even so cbt would help alleviate his awfulizing and rating himself
even in spite of his ability to comprehend it in it's totality..
