What Are the Treatments for Child Separation Anxiety Disorder?

Separation anxiety is a common stage in childhood, but when it persists, becomes more severe and lasts longer than a month, it becomes a disorder. About 2-5% of children have separation anxiety disorder, according to the Massachusetts General Hospital's School Psychiatry Program.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is commonly used to treat separation anxiety disorder with children. CBT teaches children to recognize feelings of anxiety, its triggers, and physical reactions. They are then taught new coping skills and patterns of thinking to alleviate the anxiety. Play therapy is used with younger children, utilizing toys and puppets to express emotion and model new behaviors and skills.

Relaxation Skills

• Another treatment for separation anxiety disorder is relaxation techniques, including breathing exercises, meditation, and using biofeedback-a machine that shows the child when they are tense or relaxed so they can practice their relaxation skills.

Family Therapy

• It can be very helpful to involve the whole family in the child's treatment to make it a team effort and possibly uncover other factors that might be causing the child stress and anxiety. Family therapy can give the entire family tools to deal with the anxiety, and keep it from just being the child's problem. Group therapy with peers with same anxiety issues can also be helpful.

Systemic Desensitization

• Systemic desensitization involves giving a child increasingly difficult tasks related to the anxiety disorder. For instance, going longer and farther from the parent in regulated increments. First a child might go to a friend's house for twenty minutes, then perhaps a party for an hour. This enables the child to experience increasing confidence and success.

Medication

• Medication for separation anxiety disorder is generally an antidepressant and must be carefully monitored. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Oct. 30, 2008, found the most effective treatment for anxiety disorders in children, including separation anxiety disorder, to be a combination of therapy and medication.