title: Prevalence and co-morbidity among anxiety disorders in a national cohort of psychiatrically referred children and adolescents.
abstract: The paper provides prevalence estimates of anxiety disorders as well as homotypic (e.g., other anxiety disorders) and heterotypic (e.g., mood, externalizing) co-morbidity in a national sample of children and adolescents referred to the psychiatric system in Denmark. Data were gathered from a database containing 83% of all youth referred from 2004 to 2007 (N=13,241). A prevalence of 5.7% of anxiety disorder was found in the sample. Homotypic co-morbidity was found in only 2.8%, whereas heterotypic co-morbidity was found in 42.9% of the cohort. A total of 73.6% had a principal anxiety disorder as opposed to 26.4% who had other principal diagnoses and a secondary anxiety disorder. The national database not only provides a valuable prevalence estimate of anxiety disorders in every-day non-research psychiatric settings, but also highlights the importance of applying standardized screening instruments as routine to increase the precision in recognizing and reporting on childhood anxiety disorders.
authors.affiliation: University of Copenhagen, Department of Psychology, Øster Farimagsgade 2A, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Barbara.hoff@psy.ku.dk
authors.forename: Barbara Hoff
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Esbjørn
authors.forename: Mette
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoeyer
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dyrborg
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Leth
authors.forename: Philip C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Kendall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000453:epidemiology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D055815:Young Adult