Early traumatic life events, parental rearing styles, family history of mental disorders, and birth risk factors in patients with social anxiety disorder

Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci (2004) 254 : 397405 DOI 10.1007/s00406-004-0521-2ORIGINAL PAPERBorwin Bandelow Aicha Charimo Torrente Dirk Wedekind Andreas Broocks Gran Hajak Eckart RtherEarly traumatic life events, parental rearing styles,

family history of mental disorders, and birth risk factors

in patients with social anxiety disorderReceived: 5 December 2003 / Accepted: 5 April 2004 / Published online: 12 November 2004 Abstract Objective Childhood traumatic experiences, rearing styles, familial mental disorders and birth

risk factors have been associated with the development

of social anxiety disorder. Method Patients with social

anxiety disorder (n = 50) and healthy controls (n = 120)

were investigated using a retrospective interview with

203 questions. Results The frequency of reports of traumatic childhood experiences was significantly higher in

patients than in controls,including separation from parents, parents marital discord, sexual abuse, familial violence, childhood illness, and other factors. On a 010

point severe trauma scale patients had significantly

higher mean scores (2.0; SD 1.28) than control subjects(0.82; SD 1.1; p < 0.0001).Only 6 (12 %) of the social phobic patients, but 63 (52.5 %) of the controls did not report any severe traumatic events at all (2 = 24.0; p <0.0001). Compared to controls, patients described their

parents rearing styles as significantly more unfavourable. Patients reported higher rates of psychiatric

disorders in their families in general, in particular anxiety disorders, depression, and suicidality. Birth risk factors did not differ between patients and controls. In a logistic regression model, the highest contribution was

noted for familial anxiety disorders. Separation from

parents also had a significant, but smaller influence.

There was only a trend towards a significant contribution of childhood sexual abuse. Violence in the family,

parental rearing styles and birth risk factors did not

contribute significantly. Conclusions The present data

suggest that the aetiology of social anxiety disorder is

multifactorial and that familial mental disorders and

separation experiences are the most important contributing factors. Key words social phobia social anxiety disorder

developmental trauma parental rearing styles genetic

transmissionProf. Dr. B. Bandelow () A. Charimo Torrente Dr. D. Wedekind

Prof. Dr. E. RtherDept. of Psychiatry & PsychotherapyThe University of Gttingenvon-Siebold-Str. 537075 Gttingen, GermanyTel.: +49-551/39-6607Fax: [phone]E-Mail: [email protected]. Dr. A. BroocksDept. of Psychiatry & PsychotherapyThe University of LbeckLbeck, GermanyProf. Dr. G. HajakDept. of Psychiatry & PsychotherapyThe University of...