Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, 1701 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA.
Behavioral Psychology Department, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2024 Jun;27(2):357-380. doi: 10.1007/s10567-024-00480-9. Epub 2024 Jun 3.
Anxiety disorders are disorders involving cognition. Research on cognition in youth with anxiety can focus on cognitive content (e.g., self-talk) as well cognitive functioning. The present review examines domains of cognitive functioning (i.e., episodic memory, language, attention, executive functioning, motor skills, and visual functioning) in youth diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. A database search of Embase, PsycINFO, and PubMed yielded 28 studies that met inclusion criteria of youth aged 17 years or younger, a sample diagnosed with a principal anxiety disorder and a comparison sample of controls, a comparison between those samples, and use of a behavioral measure of neuropsychological performance. Findings did not identify any cognitive functioning strengths for anxious youth. Deficits were found in two domains (i.e., receptive language and motor skills) whereas no deficits were found in attention, visuospatial skills and one domain of executive functioning (i.e., inhibition). Most domains had mixed findings. Additional analysis indicated that anxiety disorders in youth are not associated with diminished IQ. Directions for future research are identified including (a) the prioritization of studies with larger, representative samples (b) the role of cognitive functioning as a predictor of anxiety treatment outcome (c) the examination of the effect of treatment on cognitive performance, and (d) the course of anxiety and potential impairment in cognitive functioning.
焦虑障碍是涉及认知的障碍。对有焦虑的年轻人的认知进行研究可以集中在认知内容（例如，自言自语）和认知功能上。本综述检查了被诊断患有焦虑障碍的年轻人的认知功能领域（即情景记忆、语言、注意力、执行功能、运动技能和视觉功能）。对 Embase、PsycINFO 和 PubMed 的数据库搜索产生了 28 项符合纳入标准的研究，这些标准包括年龄在 17 岁或以下的年轻人、一个被诊断为主要焦虑障碍的样本和一个对照组样本、这两个样本之间的比较，以及使用行为测量神经心理表现。研究结果并未发现焦虑青年有任何认知功能优势。在两个领域（即接受性语言和运动技能）发现了缺陷，而在注意力、视空间技能和执行功能的一个领域（即抑制）没有发现缺陷。大多数领域的研究结果不一致。进一步的分析表明，青少年的焦虑症与智商降低无关。确定了未来研究的方向，包括：（a）优先考虑具有更大代表性样本的研究；（b）认知功能作为焦虑治疗结果预测因素的作用；（c）检查治疗对认知表现的影响；以及（d）焦虑的病程和认知功能潜在损害。
