Attention, memory, visuoconstructive, and executive task performance in adolescents with anxiety disorders: a case-control community study.

Objective:: The aim of the present study was to assess children and adolescents with mild and severe anxiety disorders for their performance in attention, verbal episodic memory, working memory, visuoconstructive skills, executive functions, and cognitive global functioning and conduct comparative analyses with the performance of children free from anxiety disorders.

Methods:: Our sample comprised 68 children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 years (41 with current diagnoses of anxiety disorders and 27 controls) selected from a larger cross-sectional community sample of adolescents. Children and adolescents with anxiety disorders were categorized into two groups on the basis of anxiety severity (mild or severe).

Phonemic verbal fluency and severity of anxiety disorders in young children.

Introduction: Previous studies have implicated impaired verbal fluency as being associated with anxiety disorders in adolescents.

Objectives: To replicate and extend previously reported evidence by investigating whether performance in phonemic verbal fluency tasks is related to severity of anxiety symptoms in young children with anxiety disorders. We also aim to investigate whether putative associations are independent from co-occurring attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms.

Phonemic verbal fluency is associated with pediatric anxiety disorders: evidence from a community study.

Background: Anxiety disorders typically begin in childhood and adolescence and predict risk for many problems throughout life. Although some neuropsychological correlates have been described, more research is needed, particularly in adolescents. This study compares neurocognitive characteristics of anxious adolescents with and without comorbidity to externalizing disorders to those of typically developing comparison (TDC) adolescents and adolescents with externalizing disorders alone.

Cognitive-behavioral group therapy for youths with anxiety disorders in the community: effectiveness in low and middle income countries.

Background: Although cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is established as a first line treatment for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents, there is little evidence about the effectiveness of CBT protocols in cases identified in the community in low and middle income countries (LaMICs).

Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of group CBT protocol for youths with anxiety disorders identified in a community sample in LaMICs.

Method: A total of 14 sessions of group CBT for youths and 2 concurrent sessions for parents based on Kendall's Coping Cat program were offered.

Association between anxiety symptoms and problematic alcohol use in adolescents.

Background: Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent, affecting approximately 10% of individuals throughout life; its onset can be detected since early childhood or adolescence. Studies in adults have shown that anxiety disorders are associated with alcohol abuse, but few studies have investigated the association between anxiety symptoms and problematic alcohol use in early ages.

Objective: To evaluate if anxiety symptoms are associated with problematic alcohol use in young subjects.

Anxiety disorders in adolescence are associated with impaired facial expression recognition to negative valence.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to test the ability of adolescents with a current anxiety diagnosis to recognize facial affective expressions, compared to those without an anxiety disorder.

Methods: Forty cases and 27 controls were selected from a larger cross sectional community sample of adolescents, aged from 10 to 17 years old. Adolescent's facial recognition of six human emotions (sadness, anger, disgust, happy, surprise and fear) and neutral faces was assessed through a facial labeling test using Ekman's Pictures of Facial Affect (POFA).

The multidimensional evaluation and treatment of anxiety in children and adolescents: rationale, design, methods and preliminary findings.

Objective: This study aims to describe the design, methods and sample characteristics of the Multidimensional Evaluation and Treatment of Anxiety in Children and Adolescents - the PROTAIA Project.

Method: Students between 10 and 17 years old from all six schools belonging to the catchment area of the Primary Care Unit of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre were included in the project. It comprises five phases: (1) a community screening phase; (2) a psychiatric diagnostic phase; (3) a multidimensional assessment phase evaluating environmental, neuropsychological, nutritional, and biological factors; (4) a treatment phase, and (5) a translational phase.