Research Interests

Understanding and treating childhood anxiety disorders and associated conditions

Research Activities

Understanding and treating childhood anxiety disorders and their comorbidities.

My research goals are: 1) to elucidate the cognitive, familial, and genetic mechanisms underlying childhood anxiety and its comorbidities; and 2) to test the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural treatments for these disorders to reduce the morbidity associated with childhood anxiety.

Etiological studies I have led examined: attachment and behavioral inhibition as risk factors in offspring of anxious parents; familial and psychological risks for impaired functioning in anxious children; linguistic and cognitive antecedents of selective mutism; and cognitive factors associated with comorbid ADHD and anxiety disorders. I have also collaborated on genetic studies of generalized anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. In order to more closely examine child cognitive behavioral therapy I have led randomized controlled trials in to research: the effect of parent involvement on anxious children’s outcomes; the benefits of group versus individual treatment for anxiety; the effect of parental involvement in treating early onset depression; and the effectiveness of school-based cognitive behavioral interventions for children at risk. Dissemination and translation of cognitive behavioral treatments for use in community settings is a current area of interest for me. To this end, I have developed and evaluated a school-based intervention for children at risk for anxiety and depression and a group supervision model for community practitioners learning child CBT.

Publications

Manassis K, Owens M. Timing of discontinuing SSRIs in OCD. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38: 499-500, 1999.

Manassis K, Hood J. Individual and familial predictors of impairment in childhood anxiety disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 37: 428–434, 1998.

Manassis K, Mendlowitz S, Menna R. Child and parent reports of childhood anxiety: differences in coping styles. Depression and Anxiety, 6: 62-69, 1997.

Manassis K, Tannock R, Mendlowitz S, Laslo D, Masellis M. Distinguishing anxiety disorders psychometrically. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36: 1645-1646, 1997.

Manassis K, Tannock R, Masellis M. Cognitive differences between anxious, normal, and ADHD children on a dichotic listening task. Anxiety, 2: 279–285, 1996.

Manassis K, Bradley S, Goldberg S, Hood J, Swinson RP. Behavioural inhibition, attachment and anxiety in children of mothers with anxiety disorders. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 40: 87-92, 1995.

Manassis K, Bradley S. Fluoxetine in anxiety disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 33: 761-762, 1994.