Enhancing efficacy of cognitive behavioural treatment for children with anxiety disorders: Treating parent anxiety.

很多注意力都集中在儿童问题上，如注意力不足、抑郁和药物滥用。然而，儿童时期最普遍的心理问题是焦虑。甚至有证据表明，焦虑可能会导致日后的问题，如抑郁或药物滥用。我们知道焦虑症在我们的年轻人中是一个普遍存在的问题。我们也知道，如果不及时治疗，焦虑会伴随孩子的一生，并对他们的生活造成严重的破坏。好消息是，人们对这些疾病的兴趣越来越大，因此已经开发出了有效的治疗方法。然而，最近对儿童焦虑症最佳心理治疗方法的回顾显示，平均而言，研究报告的缓解率仅为56.5%。显然，我们需要开发出更有效的治疗焦虑儿童的方法。一种可能改善焦虑儿童预后的方法是为父母提供额外的治疗。我们知道焦虑会在家庭中遗传：焦虑的孩子比不焦虑的孩子更有可能有焦虑的父母。许多理论表明，父母的焦虑在儿童焦虑的发展中起着重要作用：焦虑的父母可能会模仿焦虑的行为，鼓励避免焦虑的情况，并加强孩子的焦虑行为。本研究的结果将决定是否有可能通过解决父母的焦虑来提高治疗儿童焦虑的疗效。如果数据显示修改后的治疗没有额外的好处，治疗师可以通过忽略父母自己的焦虑来更有效地治疗焦虑的孩子。然而，如果像预期的那样，改进的治疗方法被证明更有效，那么我们将确定一个重要的策略，以提高对这一高度流行和使人衰弱的儿童问题的干预效果。

Much attention is focused on childhood problems such as attention-deficit, depression and substance abuse. However, the most prevalent psychological problem experienced in childhood is anxiety. There is even some evidence to suggest that anxiety may lead to later problems such as depression or substance abuse. We know that anxiety disorders are a widespread problem in our youth. We also know that anxiety, if left untreated, will persist through the child's life and cause significant disruption to their life. The good news is that there has been an increased interest in these disorders and as a result treatments that work have been developed. However, a recent review of the best psychological treatments for anxiety in children showed that on average studies are reporting remission rates of only 56.5%. Clearly we need to develop more effective treatments for anxious children. One possible approach to improve outcomes for children with anxiety is to provide additional treatment for the parents. We know that anxiety runs in families: anxious children are more likely than non-anxious children to have anxious parents. A number of theories have suggested that parental anxiety plays an important role in the development of anxiety in children: An anxious parent may model anxious behaviour, encourage avoidance of anxious situations and reinforce anxious behaviour in their child. The results of this study will determine whether it is possible to improve the efficacy of treatments for anxiety in children by addressing anxiety in their parents. If the data show no additional benefit of the modified treatment, therapists can be more efficient in their treatment of anxious children by ignoring the parent's own anxiety. However, if as expected the modified treatment proves to be more efficacious, then we will have identified an important strategy to increase the efficacy of intervention for this highly prevalent and debilitating childhood problem.