Emotional Intelligence and Clinical Symptoms in Outpatients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Abstract

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the anxiety disorder with the highest prevalence rate in mental health centers. Empirical researches concerning its diagnosis and treatment have not yet explored the potential implications of deficits in emotional intelligence (EI) as a vulnerability factor in its development. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between EI and clinical symptoms in a group of psychiatric patients with GAD compared to the control group. Seventy outpatients (82.9% female) with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of GAD and 70 control individuals (72.9% female) completed self-report instruments assessing EI and clinical symptoms in a cross-sectional study. Significant correlations were observed between EI dimensions such as clarity (r=.327) and repair (r=.405) and symptoms of anxiety. Also, the dimensions of attention and repair allowed a clear discrimination between clinical patients and control group. The results of the present study showed that deficits in EI abilities were a vulnerability factor in the development of GAD.