نوع و شدت استرس و بيماري هاي همراه و سطح سلامت در بيماران مبتلا به اختلال وحشت زدگي

Types and severity of stressors, co-morbidity, and general health status of patients with panic disorder

Introduction: The present study was designed to investigate the types and severity of stresses that the patients were experienced a year before onset of panic disorder. The co-morbidity of any other associated diagnosis with panic disorder and general health condition were also studied and reported in this article. Method: F fly-one patients with diagnosis of panic disorder and 51 healthy subjects were examined using semi-structured clinical interview, Paykel life event inventory, and the short form of general health survey. Results: Findings showed that patients experienced higher rate of stressors before onset of the illness in contrast to control subjects (P<0.0001). They reported to have a higher distress with the stressful events when compared to control group (P<0.0001). When the list of stressful events grouped according to the concept of lost and non-lost classes, the patients and controls did not differed in experiencing in the number of the two types of stressors. The major depressive disorder was the most prevalent type of illness associated with panic disorder. The level of general health in patients with panic disorder was severely lower than control subjectsʹ. Conclusion: Clinicians working with panic disorder patients need to consider the effect of life events stressors, low stress tolerance, depressive mood in their treatment protocol for these patients.