The relationship between early maladaptive schemas and depression and anxiety disorder in patients admitted to primary health care

Introduction and Purpose: Early maladaptive schemas are strict beliefs about the person and the world that are learned early in life. Major depression and anxiety disorders are among the most common mental illnesses/disorders. The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between early maladaptive schemas and mood disorder and/or anxiety disorder in primary care patients. Method: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The study was completed with 416 patients who applied to Dokuz Eylul University Family Medicine Policlinic and Dokuz Eylul University Buca Family Health Center for any reason between 1-31 May 2018 and 3-28 September 2018. After the participants completed the sociodemographic questionnaire and Young Schema Scale-Short Form 3 (YSQ-SF3), a structured clinical interview was conducted with each of them using the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) scale. Results: Total schema mean score of the mood disorder group was significantly higher than the healthy group (p = 0.008). Total schema mean score of the anxiety disorders group was significantly higher than the healthy group (p = 0.047). There was no statistically significant difference between the mood disorders group and the anxiety disorders group in terms of the difference in the mean total schema score (p = 0.23). When mood disorder group was compared with healthy group, negativity/pessimism, social isolation and vulnerability to harm/illness schema scores were found to be significantly higher than healthy group (p = 0.002). When anxiety disorder group was compared with the healthy group, negativity/pessimism, social isolation, approval seeking, abandonment and unrelenting standards schema scores were significantly higher than the healthy group (p <0.05). Conclusion: Patients with depression and anxiety disorder in the primary care should be evaluated in terms of their schemas. Patients can be taught methods of coping with schemas, cognitive distortions, non-functional thoughts and methods that can be applied by the individual. Key Words: early maladaptive schemas, depression, anxiety, primary care