J Korean Geriatr Psychiatry.  2016 Oct;20(2):53-60. 10.0000/jkgp.2016.20.2.53.

Comparison of Early Trauma History between Young/Middle Adulthood Patients and Earlier/Later Older Adulthood Patients with Panic Disorder

• Kim JE
• Song IH
• Lee KS
• Lee SH

• KMID: 2358082
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.0000/jkgp.2016.20.2.53

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the early trauma history between young/middle adulthood patients and earlier/later older adulthood patients with panic disorder (PD).
METHODS
216 patients with PD and 76 healthy controls (HCs) were included for analysis. Patients with PD were operationally dichotomized into two groups of young/middle adulthood (age below 50 years) and earlier/later older adulthood (age 50 years or over) to compare the early trauma history between two groups. Data of sociodemographic factors, self-reported shortened form of the Early Trauma Inventory (ETI), and the Albany Panic and Phobia Questionnaire (APPQ) were analyzed.
RESULTS
Patients with PD showed higher scores of ETI than HCs. Young/middle adulthood PD showed statistically significantly higher levels of general trauma (t=-2.088, p=0.041), physical abuse (t=-2.456, p=0.014), emotional abuse (t=-3.690, p=0.000), and total scores of trauma (t=-3.534, p=0.001) except sexual abuse. In the young/middle adulthood PD group, ETI scores were significantly correlated with APPQ scores while no significant correlation with ETI was found in earlier/later older adulthood PD.
CONCLUSION
These results show that PD is statistically associated with early trauma history and that early trauma history is more significantly related with PD in young/middle adulthood than earlier/later older adulthood. These findings suggest that the age factor should be considered in clinical practice for patients with PD.

Keyword

Panic disorder; Young/middle adulthood; Earlier/later older adulthood; Symptom severity; Early trauma

MeSH Terms

Age Factors
Humans
Panic Disorder*
Panic*
Phobic Disorders
Physical Abuse
Sex Offenses