Effect of short-term antidepressant treatment on early maladaptive schemas in patients with major depressive and panic disorder

Abstract

Objective. We aimed to investigate the effect of anti-depressant treatment on early maladaptive schemas (EMSs). Methods. Eighty patients were self-referred to a psychiatric outpatient clinic and were diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 40) and panic disorder (PD) (n = 40) according to the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV-TR). These patients were administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF) before and after a 2-month period of antidepressant treatment and were compared with 40 healthy control subjects. Results and Conclusion. Depressive mood states were more likely to activate early maladaptive schemas compared to the anxious mood states, and treating these mood states simply with anti-depressive medications led to significant improvements in the activation of these schemas. We concluded that half of the schemas might be accepted as antidepressant treatment-resistant EMSs, or, in other words, they can be viewed in part as those specific to depressive mood states.

Key Words::

• Early maladaptive schema
• schema therapy
• depression
• panic disorder
• anti-depressant therapy

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all of the patients and healthy volunteers for their indispensable contributions to this study.

Statement of interest

None to declare.