Affective Temperaments, Panic Disorder and Their Bipolar Connections

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Temperament Research

Background:

• Affective temperament's role in mood disorders is established, but its link to panic disorder (PD) is less understood.
• Few studies explore the relationship between panic disorder and specific affective temperaments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the distribution of five affective temperaments (depressive, cyclothymic, irritable, hyperthymic, anxious) in outpatients with panic disorder.
• To compare affective temperament profiles of PD patients with normative and control groups.

Main Methods:

• Evaluated 118 outpatients with PD using the Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A).
• Compared PD patient temperament scores to a large normative Hungarian sample and a gender/age-matched control group.
• Followed patients for at least 1.5 years to track the onset of major affective disorders, substance use disorders, and suicide attempts.

Main Results:

• Anxious (ANX) and depressive (DE) temperaments were significantly more common in female PD patients compared to a normative sample.
• Male PD patients showed significantly higher scores on ANX, DE, and hyperthymic (HT) subscales compared to controls.
• During follow-up, 64% developed major depression and 22% developed bipolar spectrum disorders.

Conclusions:

• Preliminary findings suggest ANX-DE-CT temperament profiles characterize female PD patients, while ANX-DE-HT profiles characterize male PD patients.
• These temperament profiles align with PD's nature as an anxiety disorder and its frequent comorbidity with mood disorders.