Treatment
Non-medication based
Non-medication based treatments are the first choice when treating individuals diagnosed with separation anxiety disorder. Counseling tends to be the best replacement for drug treatments. There are two different non-medication approaches to treat separation anxiety. The first is a psychoeducational intervention, often used in conjunction with other therapeutic treatments. This specifically involves educating the individual and their family so that they are knowledgeable about the disorder, as well as parent counseling and guiding teachers on how to help the child. The second is a psychotherapeutic intervention when prior attempts are not effective. Psychotherapeutic interventions are more structured and include behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, contingency, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and family therapy. Exposure and behavioral therapy
Behavioral therapies are types of non-medication based treatment which are mainly exposure-based techniques. These include techniques such as systematic desensitization, emotive imagery, participant modelling and contingency management. Behavioral therapies carefully expose individuals by small increments to slowly reduce their anxiety over time and mainly focuses on their behavior. Exposure based therapy works under the principle of habituation that is derived from learning theory. The core concept of exposure therapy is that anxiety about situations, people, and things does not go away when people avoid the things that they fear, but rather, the uncomfortable feelings are simply kept at bay. In order to effectively diminish the negative feelings associated with the situation of fear, one must address them directly. In order to administer this treatment, the therapist and the anxious child might sit together and identify progressively intense situations.
Cardiac fibrosis commonly refers to the excess deposition of extracellular matrix in the cardiac muscle, but the term may also refer to an abnormal thickening of the heart valves due to inappropriate proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts. Fibrotic cardiac muscle is stiffer and less compliant and is seen in the progression to heart failure. The description below focuses on a specific mechanism of valvular pathology but there are other causes of valve pathology and fibrosis of the cardiac muscle. Fibrocyte cells normally secrete collagen, and function to provide structural support for the heart. When over-activated this process causes thickening and fibrosis of the valve, with white tissue building up primarily on the tricuspid valve, but also occurring on the pulmonary valve. The thickening and loss of flexibility eventually may lead to valvular dysfunction and right-sided heart failure. Types
Following are types of myocardial fibrosis:

Interstitial fibrosis, which is unspecific, and has been described in congestive heart failure, hypertension, and normal aging. Subepicardial fibrosis, also unspecific, and is associated with non-infarction diagnoses such as myocarditis and non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. Replacement fibrosis, which indicates an older infarction. Connection with excess blood serotonin (5-HT)
Certain diseases such as neuroendocrine tumor of the small intestine (also known by the obsolete term carcinoid), which sometimes release large amounts of 5-hydroxytryptamine, commonly known as 5-HT or serotonin into the blood, may produce a characteristic pattern of mostly right-sided cardiac fibrosis which can be identified with echocardiography. Cardiac fibrosis is a significant source of morbidity and mortality in patients with functional neuroendocrine tumors.