Resilience in persons with affective and anxiety disorders and the experience of early trauma - pilot studies.

OBJECTIVES

The primary goal of the study was to examine the role of ego resilience as a factor contributing to the relationship between early trauma and the incidence of psychopathology in adult life; and to make an attempt at identifying the relationship between resilience and personality traits and the early experience of trauma and the incidence of psychopathology in adult life in persons with affective and anxiety disorders.

METHODS

The study involved 30 patients of the Day Care Emotional and Mood Disorder Treatment Unit, University Hospital in Krakow, Poland, who were asked to complete the following inventories: the Early Trauma Inventory - Self Report, the NEO-PI-R, the Resilience Scale for Adults, and the Beck Depression Inventory.

RESULTS

The vast majority of the participants (97%) experienced interpersonal trauma in childhood, mostly of physical (96.67%) and emotional (83.33%) type. The personality traits that would most frequently resurface in the participants were: Agreeableness (50%), Neuroticism (43.34%) and low Extraversion levels (36.67%). The highest score for resilience was obtained in Perception of Future (24.8 points) and the lowest in Personal Strength (9.73 points). The average level of the symptoms of depression in the sample was characteristic of mild depression (M = 22.83).

CONCLUSIONS

The outcomes fail to confirm the relationship between depressive tendencies and childhood trauma, and depressive tendencies and personality traits. The analysis allows the conclusion that the incidence of mental disorders is not dependent on childhood trauma, but rather on resilience levels. Resilience may be a predictor of a positive personality profile and a protective factor against the incidence of the symptoms of depression.