A Correlational Study of Worry and Emotion Regulation Deficits in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) patients

Abstract

The role of emotional dysregulation has been highlighted in various forms of psychopathology. Mennin et al (2002, 2004, 2005) postulated the Emotional dysregulation model of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), which emphasizes that the cardinal feature of GAD- “excessive worrying” is attributable to emotion regulation difficulties in GAD sufferers. The current study investigated the relationship between self reported worrying and emotion regulation difficulties in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) patients in Indian Psychiatric outpatient settings. A total of 150 patients (75 male and 75 female patients, in the age range of 30-50 year old), having a primary psychiatric diagnosis of GAD, constituted the sample of this study. Data were collected using the PSWQ and DERS. Self reported worrying was significantly correlated with the various indices of emotional regulation deficits in GAD patients. It may concluded that Emotion regulation difficulties are markedly associated with self reported worrying in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) patients.