Investigate and comparison of early maladaptive schemas in a sample with anxiety disorders with non-clinical samples

Background: The purpose of the current study was to investigate and compare early maladaptive schemas in patients with anxiety disorders with non-clinical subjects.

Materials and methods: From among patients referring to Tehran psychiatric institute and private clinics, 4 groups (each group: 15 patients) with anxiety disorders (such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, phobias and panic disorder) with the help of psychiatrist and execution Structured Clinical Interviews for DSM-5 Disorders-Clinical Version (SCID-5-CV) were first detected and compared with non-clinical subjects.

In this regard, The Yang non-adaptive Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF) was implemented on them and the results of comparing each group of anxiety disorders with the non-clinical group were analyzed using the t-test.

Results: The results of the current study showed that people with anxiety disorders compared to non-clinical subjects had a significant difference in terms of early maladaptive schemas, especially in terms of emotional deprivation, social isolation/alienation, defectiveness/shame failure, dependence/incompetence, vulnerability to harm or illness, enmeshment/self-undeveloped, subjugation and emotional inhibition schemes.

Conclusion: People with anxiety disorders had early maladaptive schemas.