The relationships between perfectionism, pathological worry and generalised anxiety disorder

Handley, A. and Egan, S. and Kane, R. and Rees, C. 2014. The relationships between perfectionism, pathological worry and generalised anxiety disorder. BMC Psychiatry. 14: Article ID 98.

Source Title

BMC Psychiatry

DOI

10.1186/1471-244X-14-98

ISSN

1471244X

School

School of Psychology

Remarks

This article is published under the Open Access publishing model and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Please refer to the licence to obtain terms for any further reuse or distribution of this work.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44411

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

Background: The relationships between perfectionism, pathological worry and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) were investigated in a clinical sample presenting for treatment of perfectionism. Method: This study explored the utility of perfectionism in predicting pathological worry in a sample of individuals with elevated perfectionism and GAD (n = 36). Following this, the study examined whether perfectionism could predict a principal GAD diagnosis in the full sample (n = 42).Results: Scores on the perfectionism dimensions Concern over Mistakes, Personal Standards, and Clinical Perfectionism significantly predicted pathological worry among participants with GAD after controlling for gender and depression. The perfectionism dimension Doubts about Actions significantly predicted whether individuals from the full sample received a principal diagnosis of GAD. Conclusions: These findings support certain dimensions of perfectionism having significant associations with pathological worry and GAD.