Anxiety among children and adolescents has specific features that do not coincide with those of adult anxiety. Treatment needs to be consistent with this specificity. Drawing upon clinical cases, the authors describe the factors that characterize developmental anxiety symptoms, the key elements for performing correct diagnoses, and the distinction between normal and pathological anxiety in children and adolescents. The book also examines anxiety-depressive, somatic symptom, social anxiety, panic, separation anxiety, and generalized anxiety disorders, as well as an array of therapeutic approaches. The book is a useful tool for child and adolescent psychologists, psychotherapists and neuropsychiatrists – be they professionals or in training – helping them effectively treat an increasingly widespread source of distress.

Silvia De Acutis, a psychologist and psychotherapist, works in the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology at the Sapienza University in Rome.

Rita Cerutti, a psychologist and psychotherapist, teaches Dynamic Psychology at the Sapienza University in Rome.

Vincenzo Guidetti teaches Childhood and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry at the Sapienza University in Rome.