Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:55:10.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Personality in Anxiety Disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2020

H.S. Akiskal
H.S. Akiskal*
Affiliation:
Section of Affective Disorders, University of Tennessee, Memphis, 66 N Pauline St., Memphis, TN 38163, USA
Get access

Summary

Patients with anxiety disorders are often described as anancastic, high in neuroticism, dependent and avoidant. These personalities overlap with those of nonbipolar depressives – in whom these disorders are less pronounced. Yet many indices of social adjustment appear less disturbed in anxiety disorders. Review of recent data front systematic investigations supports the thesis that the personality attributes observed in anxiety disorders represent either formes frustes expressions or postmorbid complications of these disorders.

Thus, neuroticism is best viewed as subclinically expressed neurosis. Likewise, anancastic traits are not easily separable from generalized anxiety disorder; the same can be said about avoidant personality and social phobia. Avoidance appears to be an inherent psychobiologic defense which is mobilized by anxiogenic situations. Dependency, which may reflect upbringing with an anxious parent, is further accentuated by handicaps imposed by the anxiety disorder.

Résumé

Résumé

Les patients souffrant de troubles anxieux sont souvent décrits comme étant compulsifs, avec un niveau élevé de «nevrotisme» et une personnalité dépendante et évitante. Les mêmes personnalités apparaissent chez les patients dépressifs non bipolaires - où les caractéristiques sont moins prononcées. Cependant, bon nombre des indices d'adaptation sociale sont moins perturbés dans les troubles anxieux.

Le «névrotisme» est considéré comme une forme fruste de la névrose d'angoisse. Il est difficile de dissocier les caractéristiques compulsives du trouble d'anxiété généralisée. C’est également le cas pour la personnalité évitante et la phobie sociale. L’évitement qui semble être une défense psychobiologique s'accentue dans les manifestations les plus aiguës des troubles anxieux. La dépendance peut être l'effet d'une éducation par un parent anxieux et peut être aggravée pur les handicaps qu’entraîne le trouble anxieux.

Keywords

troubles anxieuxpersonnalité pathologiqueévitementdéfense psychobiologiquedépendanceanxiety disorderspersonalityavoidance behaviorpsychobiologic defensedependency
Type
Research Article
Information
Psychiatry and Psychobiology , Volume 3 , Issue S2: Aspects cliniques et cognitifs de l'anxiété Paris, 28 Janvier 1988 , 1988 , pp. 161s - 166s
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akiskal, H.S. (1985) Anxiety: definition, relationship to depression, and proposal for an integrative model. In: Anxiety and the Anxiety Disorders (Tuma, A.H. & Maser, J.D., eds.), Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates, Hillsdale, New JerseyGoogle Scholar
Akiskal, H.S.Lemmi, H.Dickson, H.King, D.Yerevanian, B.I. & Van Valkenburg, C. (1984) Chronic depressions: part 2. Sleep EEG differentiation of primary dysthymic disorders front anxious depressions.J. Affective Disord. 6, 287–295CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akiskal, H.S. & Lemmi, H. (1987) Sleep EEG findings bearing on the relationship of anxiety and depressive disorders. In : Anxious Depressions : Assessment and Treatment (Racagni, G. & Smeraldi, E., eds.), Raven Press, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Alloy, L.B.Kelly, K.A.Mineka, S. & Clements, C.M. (1988) A helplessness/hopelessness perspective on comorbidity in anxiety and depressive disorders. In: Comorbidity in Anxiety and Mood Disorders (Maser, J.D. & Cloninger, C.R., eds.), American Psychiatric Press, Washington, DC (in press)Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. 3rd edn, revised, American Psychiatrie Press, Washington, DCGoogle Scholar
Association of Sleep Disorders Centers and the Association for the Psychophysiological Study of Sleep (1979) Diagnostic classification of sleep and arousal disorders. Sleep 2, 5–129Google Scholar
Beck, A.T.Emery, G. & Greenberg, R.L. (1985) Anxiety Disorders and Phobias. Basic Books Inc., New YorkGoogle Scholar
Cassano, G.B.Perugi, G.Maremmani, I & Akiskal, H.S. (1988) Social adjustment in dysthymia. In: Dysthymic Disorder (Burton, S. & Akiskal, H.S., eds.), Gaskell, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London (in press)Google Scholar
Cloninger, C.R. (1986) A unified biosocial theory of personality and its role in the development of anxiety States. Psychiatr. Dev. 4, 167–226Google ScholarPubMed
Coppen, A. (1966) The Marke-Nyman temperamental scale: an English translation. Br. J. Med. Psychol. 39, 55–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darcourt, G. & Pringuey, D., eds. (1987) Anxiété, Dépression-Rupture ou Continuité? Grandes Ecoles Médecine, ParisGoogle Scholar
Eysenck, H.J. (1959) The Maudsley Personality Inventory. University of London Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Faravelli, C.Guerrini, D.B.Sessarego, A. & Carbras, P.L. (1987) Personality features of patients with panic anxiety. In: New Trends in Experimental and Clinical Psychiatry III, 13-23Google Scholar
Friedman, K.Shear, M.K. & Frances, A. (1985) DSM-III personality disorders in panic patients.J. Pers. Disord. 2, 132–136Google Scholar
Goodwin, D.W.Schulsinger, F.Knop, J.Mednick, S. & Guze, S.B. (1977) Psychopathology in adopted and non-adopted daughters of alcoholics. Arc h. Gen. Psychiatry 34, 1005–1009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gurney, C.Roth, M.Garside, R.F.Kerr, T.A. & Schapira, K. (1972) Studies in the classification of affective disorders-the relationship between anxiety States and depressive illness, Part 2. Br. J. Psychiatry 121, 162–166Google Scholar
Jablensky, A. (1985) Approaches to the definitions and classification of anxiety and related disorders in European psychiatry. In : Anxiety and the Anxiety Disorders (Tuma, A.H & Maser, J.D., eds.), Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates, Hillsdale, New JerseyGoogle Scholar
James, W. (1985) The Varieties of Religions Experience. Penguin Books, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Kagan, J.Reznick, J.S. & Smedman, N. (1988) Biological bases of childhood shyness. Science 240, 167–171CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katon, W.Vitaliano, P.P.Anderson, K.Jones, M. & Russo, J. (1987) Panic disorder: residual symptoms after the acute attacks abate. Compr. Psychiatry 28, 151–158CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Linscott, R.N., ed. (1959) Selected Poems and Letters of Emily Dickinson. Doubleday & Co. Inc., Garden City, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Murray, L.G. & Blackburn, I.M. (1974) Personality differences in patients with depressive illness and anxiety neurosis. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 50, 183–191CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nyman, G.D. (1956) Variations in personality. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 107, 1–94Google ScholarPubMed
Nystrom, S. & Lindegard, B. (1975) Predisposition for mental syndromes: a study comparing predisposition for depression, neurasthenia and anxiety State. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 51, 69–76CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reich, J. (1988) DSM-I1I personality disorders and family history of mental illness. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 176, 45–49CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reich, J.Noyes, R. & Troughton, E. (1987) Dependent personality disordcr associated with phobic avoidance in patients with panic disorder. Am. J. Psychiatry 144, 323–326Google ScholarPubMed
Roth, M. (1972) Studies in the classification of affective disorders : the relationship between anxiety.States and depressive illnesses-1. Br. J. Psychiatry 121, 147–161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, M. (1984) Agoraphobia, panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder: some implications of recent advances. Psychiatr. Dev. 2, 31–52Google ScholarPubMed
Sartre, J.P. (1965) Nausea. Penguin Books, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Schneider, K. (1958) Psychopathic Personalities (Hamilton, M.W., trans.), Cassell Ltd., LondonGoogle Scholar
Turner, S.M.Beidel, D.C.Dancu, C.V. & Keys, D.J. (1986) Psychopathology of social phobia and comparison to avoidant personality disorder. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 95, 389–394CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyrer, P.Casey, P. & Gall, J. (1983) Relationship between neurosis and personality disorder. Br. J. Psychiatry 142, 404–408CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyrer, P. (1985) Neurosis divisible? Lancet i, 8430, 685–688CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization (1987) International Classification of Diseases ICD-10 draft WHO, GenevaGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.