Personality Characteristics in Patients with Panic Disorder Assessed by PDQ-R and EPQ and Their Links with Panic Symptoms

This study was performed to examine personailty characteristics in patients with panic disorder and to assess the links between personailty characteristics and duration, frequency, and severity of panic symptoms.

Thirty-six patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for panic disorder(patient group) and thirty-six normal controls were assessed by the PDQ-R and EPQ.

1) Panic parients were more likley to show avoidant(p<0.05), obsessive-compulsive(p<0.01), histrionic(p<0.01), borderline(p<0.001) and paranoid(p<0.05) personality scales than controls. The scores of total PDQ-R(p<0.01), cluster B(p<0.001) and cluster C(p<0.01) personality disorder and traits in panic patients were significantly higher than controls.

2) Panic patients showed significantly higher scores than controls on the EPQ factors of N(p<0.01) and significantly lower scores than controls on the EPQ factors of E(p<0.05).

3) The frequency of panic attack and severity of panic symptoms in panic patients were sinificantly correlated with cluster A personality disorder(p<0.05) and schizotypal personaity disorder(p<0.01), respectively.

The above results revealed that panic patients were more avoidant, obsessive-compulsive, histrionic, borderline, and paranoid than controls. The author also noted that panic patients were more introverted and neurotic than controls. Some clinical features of panic support the previous findings that where was a possible kink between panic disorder and personality disorder.