Perceived emotional intelligence in outpatients diagnosed with panic disorder with agoraphobia

Of all anxiety disorders, panic disorder with agoraphobia is the most disabling one, and it has been associated with difficulties in emotional processing. Emotional Intelligence (El), which covers a set of abilities to perceive, use, understand and manage emotions, can be useful for studying these difficulties. The aim of this descriptive study was to investigate the relationship between EI and clinical symptoms of agoraphobia in a sample of 99 outpatients diagnosed with panic disorder with agoraphobia and 101 healthy controls who were assessed with the TMMS-24, SCL-R-90 and Agoraphobia Inventory. Scores in Emotional Attention and Regulation showed a difference between both groups. In addition, correlations between Emotional Repair, on one hand, and anxiety symptoms (r = -.4l4, p=,000) and agoraphobia (r = -.363, p=.006) on the other, suggest that a perceived low emotional self-efficacy could constitute a vulnerability factor in the development or maintenance of panic disorder with agoraphobia.