Clinical Characteristics of Female Panic Disorder with Early Sexual Abuse History

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to investigate differences of clinical characteristics between a healthy female control group and female panic disorder (PD) patients with early sexual abuse history (PD+S) and without early sexual abuse history (PD-S). METHODS: We examined data from 83 patients diagnosed with PD and 20 healthy control subjects. We divided the patients with PD into PD+S (32 patients) and PD-S (51 patients) to compare demographic and clinical characteristics. The following instruments were applied: the Stress coping strategies, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) , the Panic Disorder Severity Scale, the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised (ASI-R), the Albany Panic and Phobia Questionnaire (APPQ) and the NEO-neuroticism. RESULTS: Compared to the PD-S, the PD+S group showed higher scores in neuroticism and the APPQ. And, in the PD+S group, the scores of neuroticism were correlated with the ASI-R and APPQ subscale scores and the APPQ total scores were associated with the scores of BDI. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that female PD+S patients have higher scores in neuroticism and the APPQ than the PD-S group, and these factors are associated with the panic-related symptoms severity. It emphasizes the need of specific strategies considering the childhood abuse history such as early sexual abuse in clinical approach among patients with PD.