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The Effects of Childhood Parental Death and Divorce on Six-Month History of Anxiety Disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

J. Lindsey Tweed*
Affiliation:
Box 2794, Duke University Medical Center, Durham NC 27710
Victor J. Schoenbach
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Linda K. George
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Box 3003, Duke University Medical Center, Durham NC 27710, USA
Dan G. Blazer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Box 3215, Duke University Medical Center, Durham NC 27710
*
Correspondence

Abstract

Duke Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) data were used to examine the relationships between: (a) early childhood maternal death, paternal death, and parental separation/divorce, and (b) six-month DIS/DSM-III diagnoses of agoraphobia with and without panic attacks, simple phobia, social phobia, panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Associations were found between: (a) maternal death and agoraphobia with panic attacks, and (b) parental separation/divorce and agoraphobia with panic attacks and panic disorder. The associations could not be explained by the effects of potentially confounding socio-demographic factors.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

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