Differences in negative life events between patients with anxiety disorders, depression and hypochondriasis

This study investigated whether some categories of adverse life events are differentially associated with specific types of emotional disorders. A life self-report measure of major life events was completed by 42 subjects with diagnoses of anxiety disorders, 46 subjects with major depression, 26 subjects with hypochondriasis and 73 nonclinical subjects (controls). As predicted, the onset of anxiety disorders, depression, and hypochondriasis appears to be differentially related with life stress of 'threat', 'loss', and 'health', respectively, previously experienced by the clinical subjects. Also, there were significant differences between clinical and nonclinical subjects on both perceived life stress and number of life events reported. Findings suggest a differential implication of psychosocial stress categories in particular emotional disorders (i.e., anxiety, depressive and hypochondriacal disorders). These results expand previous findings that have demonstrated an association between negative life events and psychopathology.