Preventing anxiety disorders: Improving effectiveness of, and access to, programmes

The focus of this paper is the prevention of anxiety disorders in at risk children and how programmes might be made more effective and accessible to these children and their families. Child anxiety disorders are common, cause significant distress and predict the onset of other psychiatric disorders as well as educational under-attainment. Although effective treatments exist, barriers mean they are accessed by few and, for over 40% of those who do access them, are ineffective. Anxiety disorders can be prevented, particularly when children at risk are targeted, but prevention science is less well developed than treatment science, and barriers to prevention programmes have received almost no scientific attention. We are conducting a prospective natural history study of adolescents who, in infancy, were at risk of anxiety disorders, and a qualitative study to identify barriers to anxiety disorder prevention programmes and how to make them accessible to those at greatest risk