Citation

Yilmaz O, Ateş MA, Semiz B, Tütüncü R, Bez Y, Algül A, Balibey H, Başoğlu C, Ebrinç S, Cetin M. Anadolu Psikiyatri Derg. 2016; 17(3): 188-195.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Cumhuriyet Universitesi, Publisher ScopeMed-GESDAV)

DOI

10.5455/apd.188358

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The number of studies investigating the traumatic events experienced during childhood period in pa-tients with bipolar disorder (BD) are limited and to our knowledge no previous study was conducted about alexithy-mia and dissociative experiences of these patients as well. Besides investigation of childhood traumas and associ-ated dissociative and alexithymic properties, identification of the differences between BD patients with and without childhood trauma (CT) was aimed in this study.

METHODS: Among the admissions to the psychiatry outpatient clinic, 70 BD patients and 70 healthy control subjects were included into the study. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis-I Disorders, Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) were administered.

RESULTS: Mean subscale and total scores of patients with BD in both CTQ and TAS-20, and mean DES score were found to be significantly higher than healthy control subjects. Psychopathological acts, number of episodes and suicide attempts were higher in the BD patients with childhood trauma history than that of the BD patients without any history of childhood trauma. Additionally, positive correlations were found between 'sexual abuse' and alexithymia total score along with 'difficulty identifying feelings' subscale score. Moreoever, mean DES score was also found to be positively correlated with 'difficulty identifying feelings' subscale score, 'difficulty to describe feelings' subscale score, alexithymia total score, and episode frequency.

CONCLUSION: These results highlight the importance of protective mental health in the treatment of BD and reveal that childhood traumas should be questioned when evaluating patients especially with the diagnosis of BD. © 2016, Cukurova University, Faculty of Medicine. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

adult; human; sexual abuse; female; male; bipolar disorder; scoring system; suicide attempt; Dissociation; alexithymia; major clinical study; mental disease; controlled study; Alexithymia; socioeconomics; childhood injury; physical abuse; Article; emotional abuse; DSM-IV-TR; Childhood Trauma Questionnaire; Toronto Alexithymia scale; Bipolardisorder; Childhoodtrauma; dissociative experiences; dissociative experiences scale