Size, connectivity of brain region linked to anxiety level in young children, Stanford study shows

Prolonged stress and anxiety during childhood is a risk factor for developing anxiety disorders and depression later in life. Now, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have shown that by measuring the size and connectivity of a part of the brain associated with processing emotion - the amygdala - they can predict the degree of anxiety a young child is experiencing in daily life.

They found that the larger the amygdala and the stronger its connections with other parts of the brain involved in perception and regulation of emotion, the greater the amount of anxiety a child was experiencing.

The findings do not mean that a young child with an enlarged and highly connected amygdala will necessarily go on to develop a mood disorder, said Vinod Menon, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and senior author of the study, which will be published online Nov. 20 in Biological Psychiatry.

"We are not at a point where we can use these findings to predict the likelihood of a child developing mood and anxiety disorders as an adult, but it is an important step in the identification of young children at risk for clinical anxiety," Menon said.

Participants in the study were 76 children ages 7 to 9. "For the cognitive emotional assessments to be reliable, 7 years old is about as young as a child can be," said Menon, who is a member of the Child Health Research Institute at Stanford. "But the changes to the amygdala may have started earlier."

The parents of the children in the study filled out the Childhood Behavior Checklist, a standard measure of a child's general cognitive, social and emotional well-being. All the children in the study were typically developing, with no history of neurological or psychiatric disorders, and were not using medication. None of the children in the study were experiencing so much anxiety in their daily lives that they could be considered clinically anxious.

The word stress is usually used to describe the feelings that people experience when the demands made on them are greater than their ability to cope. At such times people can often feel overloaded, under tremendous pressure and very tense or emotional. Stress affects everyone, young and old and is a completely normal reaction that all human beings will experience from time to time when faced with situations that they feel under pressure in.

Stress can be looked at in terms of external and internal stressors. External stressors are sources of stress that we are aware of around us, these can include traumas, life experiences or simply daily hassles. Internal stressors are the sources of stress that are inside us and are often the most common sources of stress. They are the thoughts and feelings that pop into your head and cause you to feel unease, these can include unrealistic expectations, uncertainties, low self esteem and apprehensions.

The work place is also known to be a key factor in stress. A study conducted by the International Stress Management Association found that more than half of people in work had suffered from stress over a period of a year. Also, statistics have shown that a quarter of working people had taken time off sick due to stress and that stress is the leading cause of sick leave. Common causes of stress at work include; workloads, long hours, responsibilities, role expectations, bullying or harassment, lack of job security, poor working environment, the organisational structure, career development and lack of support.