Prevalence of Anxiety Disorders among Children and ‎Adolescents in Iran: A Systematic Review

Objective: We aimed to conduct ‎a review to investigate the ‎prevalence of anxiety disorders ‎among Iranian children and ‎adolescents‏.‏ Method: We systematically ‎reviewed the literature up to June ‎‎2014. We searched three Persian ‎databases (Magiran, IranMedex ‎and SID) and three English ‎databases: PubMed, Scopus and ‎PsycINFO. All original studies that ‎investigated the current ‎prevalence of anxiety in a ‎sample of Iranian children and ‎adolescents were entered into ‎the study. All studies conducted ‎on special samples or in special ‎settings were excluded. By ‎searching English databases, we ‎obtained 124 original studies. ‎After removing duplicate papers, ‎‎120 articles remained. In the next ‎step, we screened the articles ‎based on their title. In sum, 95 ‎Persian and English articles had ‎relevant titles. After screening ‎based on the abstract and full ‎text, 26 studies remained. After ‎screening based on the full text, ‎all selected studies were ‎qualitatively assessed by two ‎evaluators separately‏.‏ Result: Twenty five studies were ‎eligible and reported different ‎types of anxiety disorders (i.e., ‎generalized anxiety, separation ‎anxiety, obsessive-compulsive ‎disorder, phobias and panic ‎disorder). The samples varied ‎from 81 to 2996 among studies ‎and their age range was 5 to 18 ‎years. These studies were ‎conducted in different cities of ‎Iran. SCL-90 is a frequently used ‎questionnaire. All anxiety ‎disorders were mostly ‎investigated with the prevalence ‎rates ranging from 6.8% in ‎Saravan to 85% in Bandar ‎Abbas. OCD was the second ‎common study with prevalence ‎rates ranging from 1% in Tabriz ‎to 11.9% in Gorgan‏. ‏ Conclusion: Our findings ‎revealed considerable amount of ‎anxiety disorder among Iranian ‎children and adolescents. Given ‎the fact that anxiety disorder has ‎negative effects on the well-‎being and function of individuals ‎and can lead to severe problems, ‎this disorder should be ‎considered in mental health ‎programs designed for children ‎and adolescents.‎