ABSTRACT
Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is a severe and unreasonable fear of separation from a parent or caregiver. Most prevalent among young children (aged 5-7), it can occur at any age during childhood or adolescence. Children with SAD are extremely worried that, when apart from a parent or caregiver (sometimes called an attachment fi gure), harm will occur to that person or to themselves. Th e anxiety can be so intense that children refuse to separate from their parent or caregiver; in many cases, refusing to go to school. In the most severe cases, the children may be reluctant to be in a room separate from their parents, even in their own home. Th is sometimes results in children sleeping with their parents well beyond the accepted age.
