Avoidance of damage as a vulnerability factor for depression and anxiety comorbidity

• Grant number: 05/04593-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2006
• End date: July 31, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Laura Helena Silveira Guerra de Andrade
• Grantee: Marco Aurélio Monteiro Peluso
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The co-morbidity of Depressive Disorder and Anxiety Disorders is more serious than each of these disorders alone and affects a lot of people. Studies that allow greater knowledge of predisposing factors for this co-morbidity can change the way it is characterized and treated.Four hundred individuals, from 18 to 59 years of age, selected from the sample of approximately 5000 subjects of the Tematic Project "An epidemiological study of psychiatric disorders in the São Paulo metropolitan region: prevalence, risk factors, and social and economical burden (FAPESP #03/00204-3), residents in the São Paulo metropolitan region, distributed in five groups - individuals with the co-morbidity Depressive Disorder and Anxiety Disorder, individuals with Depressive Disorder, individuals with Anxiety Disorder, individuals with sub-syndromic depressive or anxiety symptoms and individuals without psychiatric disorder and without sub-syndromic symptoms - will be assessed with the instruments “Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV”, “Temperament and Character Inventory”, “Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale” and “Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale”.Variance analysis and linear and logistic regression methods will be used to test the hypothesis that the personality dimension Harm Avoidance and its sub-factors are vulnerability factors for the co-morbidity of Depressive Disorder and Anxiety Disorder.