Childhood trauma in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: focus on personality disorders and psychopathology

[Dolphin]

The full text is available free at: https://www.researchgate.net/profil...opathology/links/55f70dd608aec948c4651476.pdf

Comprehensive Psychiatry
Volume 62, October 2015, Pages 13–19



Childhood trauma in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: focus on personality disorders and psychopathology

• Naia Sáez-Francàsa, , ,
• Natalia Calvob, ,
• José Alegrec, ,
• Jesús Castro-Marreroc, ,
• Nicolás Ramíreza, ,
• Jorge Hernández-Varad, ,
• Miguel Casasb,

Abstract

Introduction

Personality Disorders (PDs) and childhood traumatic experiences have been considered risk factors for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

However, the relationship between these factors and their associated psychopathological impact has not been explored in this population.

This study was designed to evaluate the association between different childhood traumas and the presence and number of PDs and current psychopathology in a sample of CFS patients.

Material and methods

For this purpose, 166 CFS patients were evaluated with the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) and the Child Trauma Questionnaire.

Other instruments were used to assess the associated psychopathology and the impact of fatigue.

Results

Of the total sample, 55 (33.1%) presented childhood trauma, the most frequent of which were emotional neglect (21.7%) and emotional abuse (18.1%).

Considering PD presence, 79 (47.6%) patients presented some PD.

There were no differences in frequency of physical childhood trauma in patients with and without PD.

However, patients with PD had more frequently experienced emotional childhood trauma (OR = 2.18, p = 0.034).

Severity of childhood trauma was related to a higher number of PDs, more severe depressive symptoms (p = 0.025) and suicide risk (p = 0.001).

Patients with PD and any childhood trauma presented more severe depressive and irritable symptoms and a higher suicide risk than those without any PD and non-childhood traumatic event.

These patients’ psychopathological symptoms were similar to those of patients with childhood trauma and without PD.

Conclusions

These results suggest that emotional childhood trauma but not physical childhood trauma is related to higher frequency of PD presence.

More severe childhood emotional and physical traumas are related to a higher number of PDs and to more severe psychopathological symptoms.

 

[TiredSam]

What kind of personality disorder makes someone so determined to maintain psychological causes of CFS in the face of the growing mountain of research and evidence that the causes are biological? What causes such determined willful blindness, lack of compassion, and willingness to neglect and abuse vulnerable patients? The only neglect, abuse and trauma most of us have suffered has been as adults since we became CFS patients.

When is someone going to do a study on the personality disorders that some of these psychiatrists are suffering from? Don't psychiatrists have a professional body with an interest in putting it's house in order and ridding itself of these sociopaths who seem drawn to the profession and the opportunities it presents to control and abuse patients?

 

[SDSue]

 

[Sidereal]

Morons.

 

[Esther12]

What a bizarrely poor study.

This uses PDQ-4+ to assess personality disorders- I'm not sure how that differs from the PDQ-4, which I don't think is remotely useful for CFS.

Google brought up this:

Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire 4+ is not Useful as a Screener in Clinical Practice

1. Rob J. M. de Reus1,*,
2. Julia F. van den Berg2 and
3. Paul M. G. Emmelkamp3

Article first published online: 19 JUL 2011

DOI: 10.1002/cpp.766

In clinical practice, the combination of brief, cost effective, valid and reliable assessment of personality disorders (PDs) is highly important. Substantial budget cuts require optimal use of the clinician's time. PDs are related with high axis I comorbidity, poorer therapy outcome and increased health service costs. In an effort to find a screening questionnaire that meets both the demands of cost-effectiveness and methodological soundness, we investigated the use of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire 4+ (PDQ-4+) as a first step in a two-step diagnostic procedure. As the second step, we used the Structured Clinical Interview of DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID-II) as criterion measure. Our results show that the positive predictive power of the PDQ-4+ is rather low, resulting in a large number of false positives. Therefore, its added value is poor in comparison with administering the SCID-II in the first place. Also, the value of the two validity scales of the PDQ-4+ is highly questionable. We therefore conclude that the PDQ-4+ should not be used in clinical practice as a screening instrument for PD assessment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cpp.766/abstract

There was that study finding that PD's were not more common in CFS when using a more rigorous assessment than the PDQ-4. At this point, there have been enough rubbish studies on CFS and personality, and enough people pointing out the problems with them. Time to up the standard or leave it alone imo.

 

[Sidereal]

PDQ-4 is completely useless. Even the clinician-administered SCID-II, the gold standard, can give false positives if you have students / research assistants administering it instead of psychiatrists of clinical psychologists. Assessment of personality disorder is a very difficult skill to acquire. The added complication is that serious chronic illness will result personality changes which will seem pathological (e.g. avoidant, obsessive-compulsive etc.) to the healthy eager beaver doing the assessment because they have no idea what sorts of strange things sick people have to do in order to cope with symptoms and keep them under control.

 

[alex3619]

View attachment 13125

Is this a Rorschach test? Whose head is it sticking out of the sand that is about to be sat on by a big bull? ( in jest)

 

[TiredSam]

Is this a Rorschach test? Whose head is it sticking out of the sand that is about to be sat on by a big bull? ( in jest)

I thought it was the cow jumping over the moon.

 

[TiredSam]

Before the psychiatrists ran away with all my spoons.

Time for bed I think.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Morons.

Please, don't insult morons by equating them with these arrogant, knob-strutting sociopaths!

TiredSam has a point: it is more likely that these psychiatrists have mental health problems, than it having anything do with causing M.E.

 

[daisybell]

What was the point of this research anyway? Starting with a sample of people with CFS, and then just looking at the correlation between childhood trauma and personality disorders.... Says FA about CFS.

Presumably the point was just to infer the link... Idiots.

 

[whodathunkit]

...arrogant, knob-strutting sociopaths

Lovely turn of phrase. Thank you!

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Lovely turn of phrase. Thank you!

*bows with a theatrical flourish!*

 

[SDSue]

Is this a Rorschach test? Whose head is it sticking out of the sand that is about to be sat on by a big bull? ( in jest)

Lol. Pretty sure it’s Wesseley’s.

I thought it was the cow jumping over the moon.

You’re clearly a better person than I.

 

[Never Give Up]

Because a 33% childhood trauma prevalence rate seemed rather low, I Googled it, here's what I found:

http://acestoohigh.com/2013/05/13/n...ienced-one-or-more-types-of-childhood-trauma/

"Almost half the nation’s children have experienced at least one or more types of serious childhood trauma..."

Apparently a lack of childhood trauma increases the risk of developing CFS!

 

[5150]

Childhood Trauma Is Not Contagious. In my opinion, especially the more-horrible versions of CFS/ME are contagious.

Why is this "contagious or not" question, still not settled. . . how difficult can it be for a scientific-brain to figure that out? It seems rather important as a clue.

 

[Snow Leopard]

These results suggest that emotional childhood trauma but not physical childhood trauma is related to higher frequency of PD presence.

Or it could be the other way around. Those who report higher scores on the PDQ-4+ are also likely to report greater levels of emotional childhood trauma. Without control groups and objective measures, the associations between the questionnaires may simply reflect biases of the patient when answering questionnaires.

Why do psychological researchers not ask deeper questions as to what they are really measuring? Why do they assume a particular directionality for a correlation when the directionality may be the complete opposite?

 

[Never Give Up]

Or it could be the other way around. Those who report higher scores on the PDQ-4+ are also likely to report greater levels of emotional childhood trauma. Without control groups and objective measures, the associations between the questionnaires may simply reflect biases of the patient when answering questionnaires.

Why do psychological researchers not ask deeper questions as to what they are really measuring? Why do they assume a particular directionality for a correlation when the directionality may be the complete opposite?

Exactly!

 

[TiredSam]

If I may quote Philip Larkin, who as far as I know didn't suffer from CFS:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

 

[Sidereal]

Or it could be the other way around. Those who report higher scores on the PDQ-4+ are also likely to report greater levels of emotional childhood trauma.

Right, people with psychiatric problems are probably more likely to find normal variations in parenting styles traumatic and are probably encouraged by their therapists to go dredging their past for alleged emotional abuse and trauma. It is telling that:

There were no differences in frequency of physical childhood trauma in patients with and without PD.

Physical trauma is less nebulous and more objectively identifiable than emotional abuse, IMO.