During the past decade, the results of international epidemiologic surveys have revealed that anxiety disorders are the most, prevalent, class of mental disorders in adults.38 Similar to community studies of adults, anxiety disorders are also quite prevalent in the general population of children and adolescents. The median prevalence rate of all anxiety disorders in a recent review was 8% with an extremely wide range of estimates (eg, 2% to 24%).9 Table III presents the rates of anxiety disorders in recent community surveys of youth. Current, or 12-month rates of anxiety disorders range from 2.2% in North Carolina youth55 to 9.5% in Puerto Rico.15 Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) are the two most prevalence disorders in youth. In contrast, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are both quite rare in children under 12.
