Comparison childhood trauma and schizotypal personality traits of the patients diagnosed withpanic disorder with or without agoraphobia

Aim and Hypothesis: We aimed to compare childhood trauma (CT) and schizotypal personality traits (SPT) of the patients diagnosed with panic disorder (PD) with or without agoraphobia, and also to show the correlation with agoraphobia and PD severity. The hypotheses of this study are CT and SPT could increase PD severity clinically and, the SPT is more common in the patients diagnosed with PD with agoraphobia. Method: This design of the research is cross-sectional-analytical. The data collected between October 2019 and July 2020 in the psychiatry outpatient clinic of Aydın Adnan Menderes University Research Hospital. The sample of this research is the patients diagnosed with PD who applied outpatients clinic between October 2019 and July 2020. A total of 75 patients (panic disorder with agoraphobia (n=32) and, panic disorder without agoraphobia (n=43)) were included in the study. Sociodemographic Data Form, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-Patient Edition (SCID-I), A Cluster Module of Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Axis II Disorders, Panic and Agoraphobia Scale, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Schizotypal Personality Scale, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Scale, Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, and Yale-Brown Obsession Compulsion Scale were applied to all participants. Type-1 error level was taken 5%. Results: Comparison of sociodemographic variables between PD with or without agoraphobia groups; there were no statistical differences except marital status and lifetime trauma history. Singles were common in the agoraphobia group (p=0.010), and in this group life-time trauma history was more common (p<0.0001). Comparison of clinical variables between groups; the onset age of PD was earlier in the agoraphobia group (p=0.036). Total scores of panic agoraphobia scale (p<0.0001), panic agoraphobia score excluding section B (p=0.006), HAS scores (p=0.014), schizotypal personality scales score (p<0.0001), CTQ score (p<0.0001), neglect subscale of CTQ (p<0.0001), and abuse subscale of CTQ (p<0.0001) were higher in the agoraphobia group. There was a positive correlation between the panic agoraphobia score excluding section B with abuse subscale of CTQ (p=0.032), the score of schizotypal personality scale (p<0.0001), and HAS scores. (p<0.0001). Also, there was a positive correlation between panic agoraphobia patient scale agoraphobia score with panic agoraphobia score excluding section B (p=0.001), the score of schizotypal personality scale (p<0.0001), abuse subscale of CTQ (p<0.0001), and neglect subscale of CTQ (p<0.0001). Conclusion: In our study, abuse, neglect and total scores of CTQ were more severe in patients diagnosed with PD with agoraphobia. and the main predictive factor of why two groups score were different was neglect scores. Additionally, SPT more common in patients diagnosed with PD with agoraphobia, however, it was found to have no statistical significant in determining the differences between the two groups. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that SPT can't predict on agoraphobia, but it is correlated with PD severity.