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Impact of Childhood Trauma on the Course of Panic Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

M. De Venter
Affiliation:
University Hospital Antwerp, Psychiatry, Lichtaart, Belgium
F. Van Den Eede
Affiliation:
University Hospital Antwerp, Psychiatry, Edegem, Belgium
T. Pattyn
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp UA, Collaborative Antwerp Psychiatric Research Institute CAPRI, Wilrijk, Belgium
K. Wouters
Affiliation:
University Hospital Antwerp, Department of Scientific Coordination and Biostat, Edegem, Belgium
D. Veltman
Affiliation:
VU University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry- EMGO Institute of Health care research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
B. Penninx
Affiliation:
University Medical Center Groningen, Psychiatry, Groningen, The Netherlands
B. Sabbe
Affiliation:
University Hospital Antwerp, Psychiatry, Edegem, Belgium

Abstract

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Objective

To investigate the impact of childhood trauma on the clinical course of panic disorder.

Method

Longitudinal data of 539 participants with a current panic disorder were collected from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). Childhood trauma was assessed with a structured interview and clinical course after two years with a DSM-IV-based diagnostic interview and the Life Chart Interview.

Results

At baseline, 56.3% reported childhood trauma, but this was not predictive of persistence of panic disorder. Emotional neglect and psychological abuse were associated with higher occurrence of anxiety disorders other than panic disorder (social phobia) and with higher chronicity of general anxiety symptoms (anxiety attacks or episodes and avoidance). Baseline clinical features (duration and severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms) and personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion) accounted for roughly 30 to 60% of the total effect of childhood trauma on chronicity of anxiety symptoms and on occurrence of other anxiety disorders.

Conclusion

After two years, childhood trauma is associated with chronicity of anxiety symptoms and occurrence of social phobia, rather than persistence of panic disorder. These relationships are partially accounted for by duration and severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and neuroticism and extraversion.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Type
Oral communications: Anxiety disorders and somatoform disorders; depression; obsessive-compulsive disorder and personality and personality disorders
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2017
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