Course and outcome of anxiety disorders in adolescents

The aim of this article was to examine the course and outcome of anxiety disorders in German adolescents. Anxiety and other psychiatric disorders were coded based on DSM-IV criteria using the computerized Munich version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. About 22.6% of the adolescents who fulfilled DSM-IV criteria of any current anxiety disorders at the index investigation (T1) continued to have anxiety at the follow-up investigation (T2), 17.7% had depression, 27.4% somatoform, 6.5% substance use disorders, and 41.9% had no disorders. The factors that were significantly associated with the persistence of anxiety disorders included older age, presence of somatoform and substance use disorders, as well as a high number of negative life events at the T1-interview. Adolescents with "chronic" compared to "transient" anxiety disorders and those without any disorders were significantly more impaired in various life domains. Despite these high levels of psychosocial impairment, only a few of them did seek professional help in the last 12 months before the T2-interview.