Medication prescribed for adults from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are often used and have been reported to show positive results for children and adolescents with SAD.There are mixed results regarding the benefits of using tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), which includes imipramine and clomipramine. One study suggested that imipramine is helpful for children with "school phobia," who also had an underlying diagnosis of SAD. However, other studies have also shown that imipramine and clomipramine had the same effect of children who were treated with the medication and placebo. The most promising medication is the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) in adults and children. Several studies have shown that patients treated with fluvoxamine were significantly better than those treated with placebo. They showed decreasing anxiety symptoms with short-term and long-term use of the medication. Prognosis
Discomfort from separations in children from ages 8 to 14 months is normal. Children oftentimes get nervous or afraid of unfamiliar people and places but if the behavior still occurs after the age of six and if it lasts longer than four weeks, the child might have separation anxiety disorder. About 4% of children have the disorder. Separation anxiety disorder is very treatable especially when caught early on with medication and behavioral therapies. Helping children with separation anxiety to identify the circumstances that elicit their anxiety (upcoming separation events) is important. A childs ability to tolerate separations should gradually increase over time when he or she is gradually exposed to the feared events.
In general, mental illness is a common health problem among working adults, 20% to 30% of adults will suffer from at least one psychiatric disorder. Mental illness is linked to decreased productivity, and with individuals diagnosed with SAD their levels at which they function decreases dramatically resulting in partial work-days, increase in number of total absences, and "holding back" when it comes to carrying out and completing tasks. Cause
Factors that contribute to the disorder include a combination and interaction of biological, cognitive, environmental, child temperament, and behavioral factors. Children are more likely to develop SAD if one or both of their parents was diagnosed with a psychological disorder. Recent research by Daniel Schechter and colleagues have pointed to difficulties of mothers who have themselves had early adverse experiences such as maltreatment and disturbed attachments with their own caregivers, who then go on to develop responses to their infants and toddlers normative social bids in the service of social referencing, emotion regulation, and joint attention, which responses are linked to these mothers own psychopathology (i.e. maternal post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.)