Separation Anxiety in Adulthood

This book presents data that challenges the long-established view that separation anxiety disorder should be reserved for diagnosis among children and adolescents by demonstrating that adult-onset is prevalent in many countries and that adult-onset separation anxiety disorder is just as persistent and impairing as the pediatric-onset form. Separation anxiety disorder in adulthood is associated with high levels of disability. Research and clinical data indicate that overlooking the diagnosis of adult separation anxiety disorder may result in substantial costs in the form of disability and suffering.

Over the last decades, the Psychiatry School of Pisa, in the person of Director Giovanni B. Cassano, M.D. and Stefano Pini, M.D. has conducted seminal studies in this area and brought research data into clinical practice. At the same time, the Pisa School has made a paramount contribution to the DSM-5 reformulation of adult separation anxiety disorder, which has since been transferred to the Anxiety Disorders chapter. 

Barbara Milrod, M.D. is an unusual clinical investigator. She has conducted clinical research in separation anxiety disorder, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder for the past two decades. She has incorporated separation anxiety constructs into her approach to mechanisms of psychotherapy research across these disorders, and in affect-focused psychotherapies.

The book consists of 10 chapters organized into two sections: a General Principles Section and Diagnosis and Treatment Section. The first section focuses on the biological underpinnings of separation anxiety and on the historical pathways that led to its DSM-5 categorization; the second elaborates on clinical topics, preventive strategies and treatments.

This book will help the reader to understand and diagnose separation anxiety disorder and to bear it in mind during the differential diagnosis of patients of all ages presenting not only with anxiety but also with a variety of psychiatric and behavioral disorders.