Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Children with Anxiety: Considerations for a Low Resource Setting like India.

Childhood anxiety disorders are common, chronic and cause impairment if left untreated. Early identification and treatment are, therefore, essential. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) for children with anxiety has increasingly received attention from researchers worldwide. It is now accepted that CBT should be the first line of treatment for children with anxiety. The fact that it is based on skills training for the child and also incorporates parents as co-therapists make it important to establish a strong foundation for problem-solving, anxiety management and coping skills which will be useful for all future encounters with anxiety provoking situations. It is necessary to modify the CBT techniques based on the population that is being catered to, and it is also important to incorporate cultural, social and language factors into the modules that are created for specific populations. In India, common presentations of anxiety could be in the form of somatic symptoms or academic underachievement. The primary focus of this paper is to highlight the utility of this approach in low resource settings such as India with suggestions for its modifications for use in the clinical setting. Existing lowcost models are described. Unique issues in implementing CBT in India are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]