Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2017.186

COMORBIDITY AND SUICIDALITY IN PATIENTS DIAGNOSED WITH PANIC DISORDER/AGORAPHOBIA AND MAJOR DEPRESSION

Borjanka Batinic ; Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, Serbia
Goran Opacic ; Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, Serbia
Tijana Ignjatov ; Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, Serbia
David S. Baldwin ; University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

Abstract

Background: Comorbidity of anxiety and depression (both current and lifetime) is associated with greater chronicity and an
increased risk of suicidality. We wished to ascertain which symptom clusters had the strongest association with suicidality. Our aims
were (1) to examine the presence of current comorbidity and suicidality in patients diagnosed with panic disorder/agoraphobia (PD/A)
and major depression (MD), and their relationship with duration of psychiatric treatment and frequency of hospital admission; and (2)
to examine which coexisting symptoms were most strongly predictive of suicidality in sub-groups and the overall group.
Subjects and methods: The study sample comprised 100 patients with PD/A and MD. The following assessment instruments were
applied: the Panic and Agoraphobia Scale, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, the Beck Scale for Suicide
Ideation, the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and the Whiteley Index of Hypochondriasis.
Results: High rates of current comorbidity were seen in both groups. Patients with MD had significantly higher suicidality
scores, but were also older, with a longer duration of psychiatric treatment and more frequent hospitalizations. In the overall group,
psychiatric comorbidity was correlated with duration of psychiatric treatment and frequency of hospitalizations (with the exception
of hypochondriasis which was not correlated with frequency of hospitalization). In both sub-groups and the overall group, suicidality
was correlated with scores for all examined comorbidity (with the exception of hypochondriasis in the PD/A group): however, after
multiple regression only obsessive-compulsive symptomatology predicted suicidality in all sub-groups and the overall group, as well
as depression in the overall group. Depression supposed as dependent variable and obsessive-compulsive symptomatology as a
mediator explained around 37% of the variance in suicidal ideation.
Conclusion: Patients with PD/A or MD show high rates of current comorbidity. The effect of depression on suicidality was
significant, but a non-trivial impact was also mediated by obsessive-compulsive symptomatology.

Keywords

panic disorder/agoraphobia; major depression; comorbidity; suicidality

Hrčak ID:

184754

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/184754

Publication date:

28.6.2017.

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