Citation

Milne JM, Garrison CZ, Addy CL, McKeown RE, Jackson KL, Cuffe SP, Waller JL. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 1995; 34(9): 1202-1211.

Affiliation

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia 29208, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/00004583-199509000-00018

PMID

7559315

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the frequency and phenomenology of clinical, subsyndromal, and subthreshold phobias in young adolescents. METHODS: A two-stage epidemiological study originally designed to investigate adolescent depression was conducted between 1986 and 1988 in the southeastern United States. In the first stage, a self-report depressive symptom questionnaire was administered to a community sample of 3,283 adolescents. In the diagnostic stage, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children and the Children's Global Assessment Scale were administered to 487 mother-child pairs. RESULTS: Prevalence rates of clinical, subsyndromal, and subthreshold phobia were 2.3%, 14.5%, and 22.2%, respectively. One-year incidence rates were 0.4%, 8.0%, and 16.9%, with 43.0% of phobic subjects categorized at the same or a more severe level after a year. Females, blacks, subjects not living with both biological parents, and older adolescents were more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for clinical phobia. The majority (77%) of subjects with clinical phobia experienced multiple phobias. Subsyndromal (52%) and subthreshold (74%) phobics were more likely to experience simple phobias only. CONCLUSIONS: Phobic symptoms are relatively common at a moderate level and in the majority of adolescents are somewhat transitory in nature. Characteristic symptomatology and comorbidity may facilitate earlier identification of subjects at risk of persistent symptomatology and in need of treatment.

Language: en