Life events in anxiety neurosis

The study was carried out on 84 patients of anxiety neurosis and 47 controls. Presumptive Stressful Life Events Scale (PSLES) of Singh et al. (1984) was utilized for eliciting life events experienced by patients and controls during life time and 6 months prior to the onset of illness by an open ended interview. The frequency and stress scores of total life event and different categories of life events undesirable, personal, impersonal, ambiguous and desirable, experienced during lifetime and 6 months prior to the onset of the illness were significantly more in patients than in controls. When individual events were analysed a statistical difference was observed with regard to 41 out of 51 life events. Out of these 33 events were common i.e., they were observed to be significantly more in patients than in controls both during life time and 6 months prior to the onset of the illness. Four events namely, suspension from job, theft or robbery, broken engagement or love affair and conflict over dowry were found to be significantly more in patients during life time. On the other hand, 4 other life events such as, major purchase or construction of house, failure in examination, appearing for interview and getting engaged or married were found to be significantly more in patients during the 6 months prior to the onset of the illness. Thus patients were observed to experience a variety of life events more often than controls.