title: Anxiety in children with high-functioning pervasive developmental disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anxiety symptoms in children with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) often appear to be not as severe as those in children with anxiety disorders or often appear to be the core features of PDD, and therefore, they do not meet the diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorders. In this study, we assessed anxiety broadly in line with dimensions of anxiety and not with an operational categorical diagnosis. The objective of this study was to reveal that children with high-functioning PDD have more anxiety than children in the general population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-six children with high-functioning PDD (6-15 years old) were assessed for total anxiety and six subcategories of anxiety, including separation anxiety, generalized anxiety, social phobia, panic/agoraphobia, physical injury fears, and obsessive-compulsiveness. Anxiety in children with high-functioning PDD was compared to that in children of the general population and to that in children with anxiety disorders in a previous study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children with high-functioning PDD had significantly more symptoms of total anxiety and all subcategories of anxiety except for social phobias than children in the general population, and had significantly fewer symptoms of total anxiety, separation anxiety, generalized anxiety, and social phobias than children with anxiety disorders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As anxiety in children with high-functioning PDD does not always meet diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder, psychiatrists must pay much attention to anxiety and not only depend on diagnostic criteria in order to not miss the chance of treating these children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Osaka City University, Graduate School of Medicine, Japan. wave550@r5.dion.ne.jp
authors.forename: Yuta
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakai
authors.forename: Dai
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miyawaki
authors.forename: Hiroto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kusaka
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Eri
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Futoo
authors.forename: Ayako
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kiriike
authors.forename: Koki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Inoue
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000367:Age Factors; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012737:Sex Factors