Children should be screened for anxiety disorders to prevent them developing severe mental problems in later life, a mental health expert has claimed.

 

Treating anxiety early would be the single most effective way of reducing the burden of mental disorders – one of the most common causes of disability in the developed world, according to Professor Hans Ulrich Witten, lead author of a study of the state of Europe’s mental health.

The findings of the three-year study, which covered 30 countries and more than 500 million people, have been published in the journal European Psychopharmacology.

The incidence of depression has doubled since the 1970s and the average age at the onset has fallen from the mid-twenties to the late teens as adolescents lost their sense of security in a changing world, Professor Witten said. Anxiety disorders affect 14 per cent of the population and effective treatment at an early stage can reduce the later development of depression by 60 per cent.

Professor Witten said: “We screen for dental caries [decay] – why not for anxiety… the potential treatments are so effective”

Women aged 25 to 40 ran three to four times the risk of men of suffering from depression, he added. “There are incredibly high rates of depression when women have babies, raise children and have to cope with work and family”

Anxiety disorders could also be a warning sign of neurodegenerative illnesses, such as Parkinson’s disease. Professor David Nutt, head of the department of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College, London, said: “If you can get in early you may be able to change the course of the illness so people don’t progress on to disability.”

 

Source: Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, i Newspaper