Investigation of the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and attachment styles in patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and attachment styles in patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and to compare it with healthy volunteers. In our study, 82 patients with generalized anxiety disorder according to DSM-V diagnostic criteria and 82 healthy individuals similar in age and gender were included as the control group. Sociodemographic Data Form, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 (IUS-12), Experiences in Close Relationships- Revised (ECR-R) were applied to all cases. In the GAD group, intolerance of uncertainty total score (p<0.01), prospective anxiety and inhibitory anxiety subscale score (p<0.05), and anxious attachment subscale score (p<0.01) were found to be higher than the control group. There was no significant difference between the avoidant attachment subscale scores between the GAD and control groups (p>0.05). In the GAD group, there is a positive relationship between intolerance of uncertainty inhibitory anxiety subscale score and anxious attachment subscale score (p<0.05).In the generalized anxiety disorder group, intolerance of uncertainty was not found to have a mediating effect on the relationship between anxious and avoidant attachment and anxiety. The results of our study; emphasizes the importance of attachment styles and intolerance of uncertainty in the evaluation of generalized anxiety disorder patients. Key Words: Generalized anxiety disorder, attachment styles, intolerance of uncertanity