Associations between dissosiative symptoms and emotion regulation, attachment STYLES, childhood traumas in panic disorder

OBJECTİVE: In this study it is aimed to investigate the association between dissociative symptoms of panic disorder patients and emotional regulation, attachment patterns and traumatic life events in childhood . METHOD: In our study, volunteer patients who admitted or were referred from other psychiatry centers in İzmir to psychiatry outpatient clinic of Ege University were included. After written informed consents of the cases were taken; SCID I, sociodemographic data form were filled by the patients and Panic Disorder Severity Scale was applied in purpose of determining the severity of the disorder for the last one month. Dissociative Experiences Scale, Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory II, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire were given to and asked the patients to fill in. 85 subjects were included to the study totally. RESULTS: There was a significant relationship between scores of Panic Disorder Severity Scale and severity of dissociation. Presence of agorophobia was found significantly associated with dissociative experiences, severity of panic disorder and anxious attachment pattern. There was a significant relationship between existence and severity of dissociative experiences and difficulities in emotional regulation; predominantly increment in impulsivity, decrease in clarity, difficulity in initiating goal directed behaviour in case of negative mood state. A significant association was found between anxious attachment patterns and dissociative experiences, emotional regulation difficulities. It was found that dissociative experiences in panic disorder were not related to childhood psychiatric traumas. CONCLUSION: Agoraphobia poses a risk by means of severity of panic disorder and dissociative experiences. As the severity of dissociation increases, it was determined that these subjects had such difficulities in emotional regulation as predominantly increment in impulsivity, decrease in clarity, difficulity in initiating goal directed behaviour in case of negative mood state and also it was found that these subjects had higher scores in anxious attachment scales. As the pattern of anxious attachment gets intensified, an increment in severity of both emotional dysregulation and dissociative experiments and besides increase in coexistence of agorophobia are observed. Anahtar Kelimeler: Panic disorder, emotional regulation, dissociation, attachment