Cognition and coping in agoraphobia and depression: a multivariate approach

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychopathology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Overlapping symptoms in anxiety and depressive disorders pose diagnostic challenges.
• Understanding cognitive correlates is crucial for effective treatment strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present and exemplify a multivariate strategy for studying overlapping symptom disorders.
• To investigate cognitive and coping variables predicting agoraphobia and depression factors.

Main Methods:

• Factor analysis of symptom subscales identified agoraphobic and depressive factors.
• Multivariate regression analyses examined predictors of these factors.
• Inpatients (N=117) with anxiety and/or depressive disorders were assessed.

Main Results:

• Externalizing mental health locus of control to chance significantly predicted the agoraphobia factor.
• Attributional variables consistently predicted the depression factor.
• No other cognitive or coping variables were significant predictors.

Conclusions:

• Cognitive factors, specifically locus of control and attributional style, differentially predict agoraphobia and depression.
• A multivariate approach is effective for disentangling overlapping symptom presentations.