Anxiety Disorders

Treatment

The two main treatments for anxiety disorders are medications and psychological counseling (psychotherapy). Several different types of medications are available. Also known as talk therapy, psychotherapy involves working out underlying stresses and concerns and making behavior changes. You may benefit most from a combination of these two types of treatment. After a thorough evaluation, Mayo Clinic's experts in psychiatry and psychology will tailor a treatment plan specifically to your needs.

Children and teens

At Mayo Clinic, parents are thoroughly involved in their child's diagnosis and treatment sessions from beginning to end. Parents learn how to effectively support children during anxiety-inducing situations or periods. Mayo Clinic's Pediatric Anxiety Disorders Clinic provides advanced, evidence-based medical and psychological treatment for anxiety disorders, including:

• Panic disorder
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Social phobia
• Generalized anxiety disorder
• Separation anxiety
• Specific phobia

Child outpatient anxiety treatment

Your child or teen can receive cognitive behavioral therapy and medication management on an outpatient basis. Psychotherapy consists mainly of exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy. This treatment teaches children skills to manage their anxiety and teaches parents to effectively provide support. With these tools in place, the child and therapist develop a list of situations that cause the child to feel anxious. With the help of the therapist, the child then gradually faces these fears and learns how to manage them. Treatment typically consists of six to 12 sessions completed on a weekly basis.

Intensive child anxiety treatment

Treatment for children and teens who have obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as other symptoms, is available in an intensive format for families unable to spend extended time at Mayo Clinic. Treatment can be provided in a 10-session format over five days. The goals of these intensive treatments are to:

• Teach the child and parents to be experts on anxiety and how behavioral treatment works
• Decrease the child's symptoms through successful completion of exposures to anxiety-inducing situations
• Teach the child and parents how to conduct exposure therapy so they can continue working at home

Follow-up care is provided by phone.

Read more about anxiety treatment and cognitive behavioral therapy.