The anxiety between individuals with and without joint hypermobility

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: This study was performed to compare theanxiety disorders between individuals with and without joint hypermobility. Methods: A total of 94 Turkish volunteers, 40 subjects (38 females, 2 males) with jointhypermobility and 54 controls (47 females, 7 males) without joint hypermobility, were includedin this study. We evaluated the joint hypermobility by using the Beighton scoringsystem in the participants and a Beighton score of at least 4 was considered as joint hypermobility. In addition, all cases were evaluated with Structured Clinical Interview forDSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale by a psychiatristin order to define their psychyatric disorders and anxiety levels, respectively. Results: Age, gender and educational levels of the participants were similar betweenthese two groups. Mean of anxiety score was higher statistically in the study group (13.5± 5.3) than that of the control group (11.1 ± 4.9) (p < 0.05). No statistically a significantdifference in the ratio of psychyatric disorders according to SCID-I were observed betweencases with and without hypermobility.Conclusions: Anxiety scores have been found significantly higher in the group with hypermobilitythan that of the group without hypermobility. We strongly recommend the assessmentof medical conditions, including joint hypermobility syndrome, in anxiety patients (AU)