Assessment of locus of control in patients with anxiety and depressive disorders

We studied Levenson's Internal (I), Powerful Others (P), and Chance (C) locus of control scales in 193 patients with six DSM-III-R diagnoses: Major Depression (MD), Panic Disorder (PD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Phobia (SP), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Mixed Anxiety Depressive Disorder (MAD). Compared to the comparison groups (CG), we found specific patterns for some of the diagnostic categories. There were no significant differences between the I scale scores and of those in the different anxiety and depressive disorder groups and the CG. But, patients with MD, SP, or MAD had significantly higher P scale scores than the CG. Patients with MD, PD, SP, and MAD had higher C scale scores than the CG. The OCD patients had the lowest P and C scale scores of any of the groups and not significantly different than the CG. The findings have some research and clinical implications.