Mdedge Psychcast

Anne Marie Albano, PhD, professor of medical psychology and psychiatry at Columbia University, New York, and director of the Youth Anxiety Center at New York–Presbyterian Hospital, discusses strategies for treating childhood, youth, and young adult anxiety with Nick Andrews. Dr. Albano (@AnneMarieAlbano), who also is director of Modern Minds, an anxiety and depression program in Charleston, S.C., spoke with Nick (@Nick_Andrews_) at @TEDMed 2020. Dr. Albano has no conflicts of interest. Take-home points Early identification of activity avoidance is essential because it is difficult to reverse the cycle of escape and avoidance, and this is all the more difficult with school avoidance. Parents should validate that facing anxiety is difficult and that the child might be afraid. The parental role is to help problem-solve ways to manage anxiety, continue to provide exposures, and help the child cope with their fears rather than to accommodating and enabling. In 2008, Dr. Albano and colleagues published a randomize