Effects of traumatic experiences on coping skills in patients with unipolar depression

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of traumatic childhood experiences in adults, determine its effects on coping skills and assess the influence of depressive, dissociative and anxiety symptoms in patients with unipolar depression.

Method: Fifty female and fifty male patients with unipolar depression were enrolled. All patients were administered sociodemographic data form, Beck Depression and Beck Anxiety Inventory, COPE Scale, and Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES). Experiences of childhood abuse and neglect were assessed by Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-28).

Results: It was found that female patients with childhood trauma used emotion-focused coping styles whereas male patients used problem-focused and “less useful” coping styles more frequently. This study revealed that there were many gender differences among patients with traumatic experiences in terms of coping styles. Male and female patients with childhood traumatic experiences had a worse clinical course of disease such as higher severity of depression, anxiety and dissociative symptoms. In addition, differences were found in the severity of depression, anxiety and dissociative symptoms between the types of abuse and neglect.

Conclusion: Our results show that the majority of the patients with depression had suffered childhood trauma. Childhood traumas were likely to affect the course of depression negatively. Rigorous questioning of the traumatic history of the subjects, accompanying anxiety and dissociative symptoms and specifying the coping styles used seems crucial for understanding their role in the development of depression and comorbid psychiatric disorders, determining the treatment objectives and monitoring the therapeutic effectiveness.