Personality and benzodiazepine sensitivity in anxious patients and control subjects

• Published in: Psychiatry research Vol. 47; no. 2; pp. 151 - 162
• Main Authors: Cowley, Deborah S., Roy-Byrne, Peter P., Greenblatt, David J., Hommer, Daniel W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01.05.1993; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Anxiety Disorders - drug therapy; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Benzodiazepines - administration & dosage; Benzodiazepines - pharmacology; Benzodiazepines - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; Diazepam - administration & dosage; Diazepam - pharmacology; Diazepam - therapeutic use; Female; generalized anxiety disorder; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Models, Psychological; panic disorder; Panic Disorder - diagnosis; Panic Disorder - drug therapy; Panic Disorder - psychology; Personality; Personality Inventory; Placebos; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Saccades - drug effects; saccadic eye movement velocity; Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire; saccadic eye movement velocity; generalized anxiety disorder; panic disorder; Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire; Human; Panic; Tranquillizer; Generalized anxiety disorder; Psychotropic; Vision; Benzodiazepine derivatives; Perception; Personality; Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire Cloninger; Velocity; Saccadic eye movement
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/0165-1781(93)90045-I

Cloninger has recently proposed a model of personality variability that is based on three independent heritable traits of harm avoidance, novelty seeking, and reward dependence, each of which is thought to be mediated by a separate neurochemical and neuroanatomic mechanism. The current study tested hypotheses generated on the basis of this theory in anxious patients and control subjects. Eighteen patients with panic disorder, 12 patients with generalized anxiety disorder, and 21 control subjects underwent both personality testing and assessment of their sensitivity to diazepam, as measured by slowing of saccadic eye movement velocity. As expected, anxious patients displayed higher harm avoidance scores than controls. Although an inverse correlation between harm avoidance and benzodiazepine sensitivity was predicted, no relationship between these variables was found in any diagnostic group. However, a significant correlation was found between novelty-seeking scores and sensitivity to diazepam. This finding, although not predicted by Cloninger's theory, is consistent with prior preclinical and human studies.