Phobias and Nervous Symptoms in Childhood and Maturity: Persistence and Associations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Osaka City University Medical School, Asahi-Machi, Abeno-Ku, Osaka, Japan

1. The natural history of phobic and some nervous symptoms was studied in mothers of children who were invited for routine check up. Their childhood data on phobia and nervous symptoms were obtained from their respective mothers and they were interviewed to see if they suffered from the symptoms as adults.

2. The following statistically significant associations between childhood symptoms (or traits) and the same symptoms in adulthood were demonstrated; 35 per cent of those who showed marked fear of thunder, animals or injections showed a phobia of one of these objects at the time of interview. Thirty-five per cent of those with frequent headache, 44 per cent of those with insomnia over worries and 64 per cent with 'indecision' during childhood kept the same symptom at the time of interview. Each of these symptoms in adulthood can be best predicted from the presence or absence of the same symptom in childhood.

3. Other significant associations demonstrated between childhood and adult symptoms are: 33 per cent of those who often lost sleep over worries in childhood showed anxiety symptoms, and 40 per cent become sleepless after drinking coffee as adults. Thirty-nine per cent of those with `indecision' in childhood have insomnia after coffee as adults.

4. To assess the waxing and waning of the symptoms from childhood to adulthood and during adult years, the mothers were divided into two groups, those below and over 30 years of age. Comparison of these two groups showed that many of the phobic and nervous symptoms observed in childhood still tend to disappear significantly during 5.6 years of adulthood.