Primate Models for the Management of Separation Anxiety

Abstract

The clinical problem of anxiety has been the subject of extensive research in both child and adult psychopathology--one that has been highlighted with the increased emphasis on phenomenology in psychiatric diagnosis during the past decade. The current diagnostic and statistical manual of the American Psychiatric Association (1987) includes several forms of anxiety disorders. In adults these include the categories of generalized anxiety disorders and panic attacks as well as phobic anxiety. Panic attacks are further subdivided and may occur with or without agoraphobia. In childhood there is an additional classification with designations for separation anxiety, separation anxiety disorder, and anticipatory anxiety, the overanxious disorder of childhood. Phobias may occur at all ages but the diagnoses of generalized anxiety and panic attacks ordinarily do not present until late adolescence and early adult life. The childhood forms present as the persistence and exaggeration of a normal developmental response to separation from the caregiver. When the response becomes maladaptive leading to personal distress or failure in adaptation, e.g. inability to attend school, a disorder is designated.