title: Differences in the size of personal space between persons with anxious and persons with psychotic disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Personal space is the area individuals maintain around themselves into which others cannot intrude without arousing discomfort. The purpose of this study was to establish whether patients with anxiety disorder and patients with psychotic disorder differ in personal space preferences according to experimenter sex.
  
  
  METHODS
  82 patients who met the ICD- criteria for psychotic and anxiety disorder participated in the study. Personal space was assessed using stop-distance method in which all subjects were approached by female and male experimenter from four directions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Personal space zone was significantly larger in the patients with anxiety disorder than in the patients with psychotic disorder.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this research can be seen as possible tendencies, rather than firm indications; it is necessary to make a further research, on a larger sample, of different aspects of psychotic and anxiety patients' personal spaces in a quest for the significances in their behavior in space.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Cantonal Hospital, Irfan Ljubijankić, Darivalaca krvi 67, 77 000 Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina. vilce_dana@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Vildana
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Aziraj
authors.forename: Spasenija
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ćeranić
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010550:Personal Space; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult