Cognitive Behavioral Approaches & Pediatric Anxiety with Scott Compton, PhD

Cognitive Behavioral Approaches to Pediatric Anxiety Disorders

Children commonly exhibit signs of anxiety at different phases of development. However, approximately one in five children experience fear, nervousness, and shyness that significantly interfere with normative developmental tasks. If left untreated, anxiety disorders can significantly affect their ability to succeed in school, maintain healthy interpersonal relationships, and increases the risk of mental health problems as adults. In this workshop, Dr. Compton will present a brief overview of the current empirical evidence for the treatment of pediatric anxiety disorders. He will also describe cognitive behavioral interventions that help children successfully manage symptoms of anxiety and use case examples from his clinical work to illustrate the process.

Scott N. Compton, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center. He has been active for more than 15 years in the Program in Child Affective and Anxiety Disorders at Duke, where his research interests have focused broadly on child and adolescent psychotherapy treatment development and evaluation; anxiety and depressive disorders in children and adolescents; chronic tic disorders; behavioral and interpersonal approaches to the treatment of adolescent depressive disorders; translating efficacious treatments into community settings; and multi-site pediatric and adolescent comparative treatment trials. He has received multiple grants from NIMH among others, awards for his research and writing, and is currently associate editor for the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.