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We used the Bond Defense Style and Cloninger Tridimensional Personality questionnaires to assess defense styles and personality dimensions in subjects with anxiety and depressive disorders. When measured against a comparison group, maladaptive defense style scores were significantly higher in those with major depression, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and social phobia, and higher at a trend level in the subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder and mixed anxiety and depression. However, there were no differences in adaptive defense style scores between the subjects and the comparison group. The harm avoidance personality dimension scores were significantly higher in subjects with both anxiety and depressive disorders than in the comparison group. The harm avoidance scores correlated positively with the maladaptive defense scores, but negatively with the adaptive defense scores. These findings are discussed in terms of severity of illness, level of functioning, and relationships between Axis I and II disorders.

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) is one of the most widely used scales for the evaluation of anxiety in medical and, to a lesser extent, psychiatric patients. Although there is a relatively large amount of STAI data about anxiety for individuals with a variety of psychiatric disorders, the results of many anxiety studies include only state or trait and many studies have been influenced by comorbidity and by variations in diagnostic criteria used. We studied state and trait anxiety and compared the revised form of the STAI (Form Y) with the original (Form X) to evaluate the anticipated improvement in the measure. In addition, we compared the STAI results with those of another self-report measure (the Symptom Checklist-90 anxiety and depression scales) and also with interviewer-rated measures of anxiety (Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety) and depression (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression). Results indicate that the STAI does not clearly differentiate anxiety disorders from depressive disorders and support the use of multiple tests and of both self-report and interviewer ratings in the evaluation of anxiety and depression in psychiatric patients.

We studied the use of the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) to differentiate between specific anxiety and depressive disorders and/or their symptoms in 280 patients with 6 DSM-III-R diagnoses: major depression (MD), panic disorder (PD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social phobia (SP), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and mixed anxiety and depression (MAD). Using a comparison group, we found specific patterns for some of the diagnostic categories. Both the MD and MAD subjects had significantly high paranoid ideation, interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, and psychoticism, as well as high depression subscale scores; those with PD and GAD has the highest anxiety and somatization scores; and those with SP or OCD had a mixed pattern. When ranking the severity of psychopathology, the disorders ordered from most to least were MAD, MD, PD, GAD, SP, and OCD. Subsyndromal levels of symptoms frequently were associated with the various conditions. Use of the SCL-90 subscale helps to enlarge our understanding of the various anxiety and depressive disorders.