New Drug Treats Kids' Anxiety
The drug
Venlafaxine HCl can treat generalized anxiety disorder in children and
adolescents, a new clinical trial shows. About 5 percent of U.S. children
suffer from GAD, which causes excessive anxiety and worry that are difficult
to control.
Affected children
often miss school because of headaches, stomachaches and vomiting. They
constantly visit the school nurse, cannot function well in school and are
shy and withdrawn. Researchers at Northwest Clinical Research Center in
Bellevue, Wash., who conducted the trial, said GAD differs from normal
feelings of nervousness because the symptoms are chronic.
They include
alarming reactions that can occur for no apparent reason. If left untreated,
GAD children may have social difficulties, school problems and low self-esteem.
They also are
at greater risk for substance abuse, depression and suicide.
The drug, which
also helps adult GAD sufferers, "significantly" reduced symptoms of the
condition in test subjects, who ranged in age from six to 17.
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