Childhood anxiety disorders frequently begin during early childhood as phobias and can develop into panic attacks during adolescence, psychiatrist Marcio Bernik has warned.
Speaking on the medical television program CNN Sinais Vitais on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Bernik explained that most anxiety disorders start in the first years of life and can evolve into more complex conditions throughout a person's development.
Evolution of Childhood Phobias
Bernik, the head of the Anxiety Ambulatory at the Hospital das Clinicas of the University of Sao Paulo, noted that anxiety often appears initially as simple phobias in children. He stated that these early fears typically evolve into panic attack conditions during adolescence, while older patients predominantly manifest excessive and persistent worries.
The Hospital das Clinicas is the medical school teaching complex of the University of Sao Paulo, the largest public university and research institution in Brazil.
According to Bernik, many childhood phobias are temporary and improve over time. He explained that it is normal for young children starting to interact with the wider world to develop fears, including some that are magical or imaginary.
He added that a certain level of anxiety is part of the survival mechanisms of the human species, serving as a necessary tool for children to recognize and avoid dangerous situations.
Genetic Risks and Panic Disorder
Turning to panic disorder, Bernik pointed out that while it is not the most common form of anxiety, it carries a remarkably strong genetic component. He revealed that approximately 70 percent of the variance in the likelihood of developing the condition is of genetic origin.
Bernik emphasized that children of patients with panic disorder are the ones most likely to contract the condition. He ranked panic disorder alongside bipolar disorder, a psychiatric illness characterized by extreme mood shifts, as among the most genetically determined conditions in psychiatry.
To demonstrate the prevalence of panic attacks, Bernik recalled an experience working in a hospital emergency room. Alongside a postgraduate student, he identified 140 patients in a single month who arrived feeling a sense of impending death.
All 140 patients showed completely normal electrocardiograms, a diagnostic test used to measure heart rhythm and electrical activity. Bernik identified this combination of severe panic symptoms and normal heart function as a classic indicator of panic disorder.
Physical Symptoms and Anxious Thoughts
Neuropsychologist Maria Alice Fontes described in detail how anxious thinking patterns affect daily living. She explained that individuals with anxiety tend to focus constantly on the worst possible event, developing what she described as all or nothing thinking.
Fontes noted that sufferers become consumed by negative thoughts that something bad will happen, leaving their expectations locked onto the worst outcome.
She pointed out that this mental state can trigger intense physical symptoms, including tachycardia, sweating, and a feeling of fleeing thoughts. Tachycardia is a medical term for an abnormally fast resting heart rate.
Fontes cautioned that rather than navigating a normal daily routine, the person devotes continuous energy to identifying everything that could go wrong, severely compromising their quality of life.
