Neurosis in children manifests as unexplained abdominal pain, headache or palpitations. Every parent should know about the existence of this group of diseases, because improper handling of neurosis in a child may only worsen the course of the problem.
Neurosis in children(in various forms) is estimated to affect up to one in five children, but the prevalence of anxiety disorders varies with age.
Today, the concept of neurosis, which has been used in medicine since the 18th century, is used less and less frequently. Various problems in this group of psychiatric diseases - due to the dominant symptom among them - are more often referred to as anxiety disorders.
Contents:
- Symptoms of neurosis in children
- Causes of neurosis in children
- Treatment of neurosis in children
Symptoms of neurosis in children
Anxiety is the primary ailment associated with neurosis in children. However, it is also accompanied by other symptoms, which depend on the type of disorder present in the patient.
- Generalized anxiety disorder
In generalized anxiety disorder, the child experiences anxiety almost all the time, however, it is a relatively low level of anxiety.
It may refer to various events, such as a vision of receiving a negative grade at school or a failure in a sports competition. In this case, anxiety may be accompanied by sleep problems, deterioration of concentration and irritability.
- Panic Disorder
Panic attacks are states of severe anxiety accompanied by somatic complaints (e.g. problems with breathing or a significant increase in heart rate).
In childhood panic disorder, seizures can appear completely unexpectedly, and in addition, the fear of experiencing another attack may be so great that it itself can trigger another episode of panic.
- Specific phobias
As the name suggests, children suffering from specific phobia feel anxiety about some specific object or phenomenon. Excessive, pathological fear can be caused by animals and insects, but also by driving a car on a bridge or flying by plane.
In the case of a specific phobiathe child tries to avoid anxiety-generating factors, and in case of contact with them, he may react with crying or anger.
- Social phobia
Adolescent patients with social phobia avoid contacts, especially with strangers. If exposed to such an encounter, they may avoid talking or making eye contact, and experience considerable discomfort associated with finding themselves in an uncomfortable situation.
Social phobia can be a source of problems because a child experiencing it (in extreme cases) may refuse to go to school or try to leave the home as little as possible to avoid contact with other people.
Sometimes a symptom of social phobia is selective mutism, in which a child who is generally able to speak properly stops talking to people he does not know.
- Separation anxiety
Separation anxiety is one of the forms of childhood neurosis in which a little patient cannot bear to part with their caregivers. The very moment of parting with the parent (e.g. separation while going to work) or even just the thought of it arouses fear, crying and irritation of the child.
They may take various actions to keep the caregiver with them, such as reporting somatic complaints such as abdominal pain or headache. Separation anxiety can also make your child reluctant to leave the house. This may apply to both going to school and going on a trip without parents.
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Of all the described symptoms, it is probably the obsessive-compulsive disorder that seems to be the most burdensome for the environment. There are two components in their course: obsessions, i.e. unwanted, persistent thoughts that appear constantly, and compulsions, i.e. activities the performance of which calms the patient down and causes the obsession to temporarily disappear.
Children with OCD may have a variety of symptoms, for example, a clean-obsessed patient may change clothes multiple times a day or still wash their hands.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder can significantly disrupt the functioning of a child, as it sometimes takes even more of a day to perform compulsions.
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Causes of neurosis in children
Neurosis in children does not have one specific cause. Both anatomical defects of the brain structures and disorders of the neurotransmitter systems are taken into account in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders in children.
The genetic burden is also suspected of influencing the development of neurosis, as there is a noticeable tendency towards an increased incidence of the problem in those children whose parents suffer from or have suffered from anxiety disorders in the past.
Certain environmental factors (and according to some authors - above all) are also related to the onset of neurosis in children - the risk that some situations may cause anxiety disorders increases especially when the child has the above-mentioned predisposition to develop this type problems.I mean in this case:
- change of school, class or place of residence,
- experiencing violence (physical and / or mental) by peers or family,
- lack of support from the immediate environment,
- death of a loved one,
- upbringing irregularities, which may be both excessive parental care and too frequent criticism of the child.
Reasons Children Simulate Illness
Treatment of neurosis in children
The basis for the treatment of childhood neuroses are various types of psychotherapeutic interactions, such as:
- psychoeducation,
- family therapy, group therapy,
- psychotherapy,
- social skills training,
- relaxation exercises.
Parents of a child with neurosis receive specialist advice on how to respond to anxiety in their offspring. The patient should not be persuaded to believe that avoiding the factor that causes anxiety is a good solution - quite the opposite, because doing so can lead to an exacerbation of the degree of neurosis.
In a situation where psychotherapeutic methods do not provide a satisfactory improvement in the patient's condition, pharmacotherapy may be used. In the pharmacological treatment of neuroses in children, antidepressants from the group of serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) play the most important role, reducing the severity of anxiety.
The treatment effect is noticeable only after some time. On an ad hoc basis, to quickly reduce the intensity of anxiety, benzodiazepines or hydroxyzine can be used in children - however, these drugs are avoided in this age group, and they are administered to patients only when necessary.