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Separation Anxiety Disorder [Treatment Section]

Non-pharmacological treatments are methods of treatment that do not involve drugs. Non-pharmacological treatments are to be used before using pharmacological treatments.
 * Behavioral therapy are types of nonpharmacological treatment which are mainly exposure-based techniques. This covers techniques such as: systematic desensitization, emotive imagery, participant modelling and contingency management . Recent studies that have tested the effectiveness of behavioral therapy have mainly focused on child who exhibit school-refusal . Children are forced to go to school and eventually show decreasing symptoms of SAD.
 * Contingency management is a form of treatment found to be ideal for younger children with SAD . Contingency management revolves around a reward system with verbal of tangible reinforcement . When children under-going contingency management show signs of independence they are praised and/or given a reward . Children in pre-school who show symptoms of SAD do not have the communicative ability to express their emotions or the self-control ability to cope with their separation anxiety on their own . That is why parental involvement is crucial in younger cases of SAD.

The method behind CBT is that faulty cognition is the reason for the anxiety of SAD. In 1998, Ollendick and King did a study to measure the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (using Kendall's four components) on children of 9 years or older. 64% of the treated children did not meet the DSM's criteria for SAD. Only 5% of the wait-listed children in the study showed these results.
 * Cognitive-Behavioral therapy (CBT) are the same as behavioral therapy with the inclusion of cognitive therapy .According to Kendall and colleagues, there are four components which must be taught to a child under-going CBT
 * 1) Recognizing anxious feelings and somatic reactions to anxiety.
 * 2) Clarifying cognitions in anxiety-provoking situations.
 * 3) Developing a plan to cope with the situation.
 * 4) Evaluating the success of the coping strategies and utilizing self-reinforcement.
 * 1) Evaluating the success of the coping strategies and utilizing self-reinforcement.
 * Cognitive procedures is a form of treatment found to be ideal for older children with SAD . The theory behind this technique is that the child's dysfunctional thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs are what lead to anxiety and cause anxious behavior . Child who are being treated with cognitive procedures are taught to ask themselves if there is "evidence" to support their anxious thoughts and behaviors . The children are then taught "coping thoughts" to use during anxiety inducing situations. The children are then taught to praise themselves for handling the situation bravely.

Pharmacological Treatment is only to be used on people with extreme cases of SAD who showed no improvement when under-going non-pharmacological treatment. School-refusal is in most cases in which pharmacological treatment is used to treat SAD. However, these patients have been thought to have had a psycho-pathological condition in some cases instead of SAD. The following is a list of agents used in pharmacological treatment of SAD.
 * Pharmacological management of separation anxiety disorder.
 * Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors
 * fluxetine
 * paroxetine
 * sertraline
 * fluvoxamine
 * citalopram
 * Tricyclic anti-depressants
 * Benzodiazepines
 * Buspirone