Objective: To examine the association between separation anxiety disorder (SAD) and mental disorders in a community sample and to evaluate whether separation anxiety is specifically related to panic disorder with and without agoraphobia.
Method: The data come from a 4-year, prospective longitudinal study of a representative cohort of adolescents and young adults aged 14–24 years at baseline in Munich, Germany. The present analyses are based on a subsample of the younger cohort that completed baseline and two follow-up investigations (n = 1,090). DSM-IV diagnoses were made using the Munich Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Cox regressions with time-dependent covariates were used to examine whether prior SAD is associated with an increased risk for subsequent mental disorders.
Results: Participants meeting DSM-IV criteria for SAD were at an increased risk of developing subsequent panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDAG) (HR = 18.1, 95% CI = 5.6–58.7), specific phobia (HR = 2.7, 95% CI = 1.001–7.6), generalized anxiety disorder (HR = 9.4, 95% CI = 1.8–48.7), obsessive-compulsive disorder (HR = 10.7, 95% CI = 1.7–66.1), bipolar disorder (HR = 7.7, 95% CI = 2.8–20.8), pain disorder (HR = 3.5, 95% CI = 1.3–9.1), and alcohol dependence (HR = 4.7, 95% CI = 1.7–12.4). Increased hazard rates for PDAG (HR = 4.2, 95% CI = 1.4–12.1), bipolar disorder type II (HR = 8.1, 95% CI = 2.3–27.4), pain disorder (HR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.01–3.5), and alcohol dependence (HR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.1–4.) were also found for subjects fulfilling subthreshold SAD.
Conclusions: Although revealing a strong association between SAD and PDAG, our results argue against a specific SAD-PDAG relationship. PDAG was neither a specific outcome nor a complete mediator variable of SAD.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:26280 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Brückl, Tanja M., Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich, Höfler, Michael, Pfister, Hildegard, Schneider, Silvia, Lieb, Roselind |
| Publisher | Karger |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Source | Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 2007, Bd. 76, Nr. 1, S. 47-56, ISSN: 0033-3190, EISSN: 1423-0348 |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 10.1159/000096364 |
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