title: Temperament characteristics in patients with panic disorder and their first-degree relatives.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Panic disorder is one of the highly heritable anxiety disorders; and temperament characteristics are considered predicting liability to panic disorder. Accumulating evidence suggests temperament characteristics are intermediate phenotypes for clinical conditions. Given this background, we aimed to investigate temperament characteristics in patients with panic disorder, their first-degree relatives, and healthy controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Study sample consisted of 60 patients with panic disorder, 37 first-degree relatives of these patients, and 37 age, gender, and education level matched healthy controls (HC). SCID-I, the Panic Agoraphobia Scale, and the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory were applied to assess clinical characteristics of the patient group. Temperament characteristics were assessed using the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Anxious, depressive, cyclothymic, and irritable temperament scores of patients were higher than those of HC. There was no difference between the patients and the relatives, with the exception of higher anxious temperament scores in patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, our findings suggest that anxious temperament characteristic might be a trait marker for liability to panic disorder. Further research with a prospective design in a larger sample is required to confirm our findings.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry Unit, Private Barbaros Clinic, Canakkale, Turkey. Electronic address: gulcinaltinbas@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Gülçin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Altınbaş
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey.
authors.forename: Kürşat
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Altınbaş
authors.affiliation: Child Study Center, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Selin Aktan
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Gülöksüz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience MHeNS Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sinan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gülöksüz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Celal Bayar University, Manisa, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ömer
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Aydemir
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neurosurgery, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Güliz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Özgen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007508:Irritable Mood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D057566:Self Report; D013694:Temperament