REVIEW ARTICLES   

Panminerva Medica 1999 June;41(2):153-6

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Panic disorder in children and adolescents

Masi G., Favilla L. Romano R.

From the Department of Developmental Neurology Psychiatry and Educational Psychology University of Pisa, Italy Scientific Institute Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy

Panic dis­or­der (PD) is a ­well-­known and fre­quent­ly ­described psy­chi­at­ric dis­or­der in ­adults, ­that can ­cause clin­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant dis­tress and impair­ment of ­social and occu­pa­tion­al func­tion­ing. It is char­ac­ter­ized by a dis­crete peri­od of ­intense ­fear and dis­com­fort, ­that devel­ops abrupt­ly and reach­es a ­peak in 10 min­utes or ­less, ­with oth­er somat­ic and cog­ni­tive symp­toms. PD in prep­u­ber­tal chil­dren and ear­ly ado­les­cents in rare­ly report­ed, but 18% of ­adult ­patients ­with PD indi­cate ­onset of PA ­before 10 ­years of age. Probably ­many of the prep­u­ber­tal cas­es are ­being mis­di­ag­nosed, and/or ­they can ­have a dif­fer­ent clin­i­cal expres­sion ­from ­adults. The ­lack of iden­tifi­ca­tion of ­these affect­ed sub­jects can ­have seri­ous con­se­quenc­es on ­social and aca­dem­ic devel­op­ment. The aim of ­this ­paper is to ­review clin­i­cal lit­er­a­ture describ­ing PD in chil­dren and ado­les­cents. Prevalence, spec­i­fic­ity of clin­i­cal fea­tures, comor­bid­ity, instrum­ents for diag­no­sis are ­described. Directions in phar­mac­o­log­i­cal, psy­cho­ther­a­peu­tic and edu­ca­tion­al man­age­ment of PD in chil­dren and ado­les­cents are sug­gest­ed.