Nightmare experience and family relationships in healthy volunteers and nightmare disorder patients

Chu Wang,Yanli Jia,Xu Shao,Chanchan Shen,Wei Wang

doi:10.1186/s12888-019-2299-9

Abstract

BackgroundNightmares are associated with parental bonding styles and various psychiatric disorders, but the exact connections between different nightmare experience features and family relationships in healthy volunteers and nightmare disorder patients are still unclear.MethodsWe therefore invited 62 nightmare disorder patients and 135 healthy volunteers to undergo tests of the Nightmare Experience Questionnaire (NEQ), the Family Relationship Questionnaire (FRQ), and the Plutchik - van Praag Depression Inventory (PVP).ResultsBesides the higher nightmare frequency and the higher PVP and four NEQ scale scores, the nightmare disorder patients had higher scores of FRQ Paternal Abuse, and lower ones of General Attachment, Maternal Encouragement, Maternal Freedom Release, and Paternal Freedom Release. The PVP was correlated with some NEQ and FRQ scales in both healthy volunteers and patients, and it functioned as a mediator between Physical Effect and Maternal Dominance in patients. Regarding predicting NEQ by FRQ, Paternal Abuse predicted Physical Effect, Maternal Dominance predicted Physical Effect and Horrible Stimulation, General Attachment predicted Horrible Stimulation (−) in healthy volunteers; Maternal Dominance predicted Physical Effect, Meaning Interpretation, and Horrible Stimulation, Paternal Freedom Release predicted Physical Effect (−), and Paternal Dominance predicted Meaning Interpretation and nightmare frequency in patients.ConclusionsOur study has demonstrated that the inappropriate family relationships were linked with different aspects of nightmare experience, especially in nightmare disorder patients.

Highlights

Nightmares are associated with parental bonding styles and various psychiatric disorders, but the exact connections between different nightmare experience features and family relationships in healthy volunteers and nightmare disorder patients are still unclear
Compared to healthy volunteers, nightmare disorder patients scored significantly higher on Plutchik - van Praag Depression Inventory (PVP) (t (1, 195) = 3.67, p < .001); individual data showed that six patients scored between 26 to 30, and were considered as in depressive state
Nightmare disorder patients and healthy volunteers scored significantly different on some Family Relationship Questionnaire (FRQ) scale scores (group effect, F(1, 195) = 5.29, MSE = 119.16, p < .05; scale effect, F (8, 1560) = 186.93, MSE = 2721.61, p < .001; group × scale interaction effect, F (8, 1560) = 3.27, MSE = 47.55, p < .01), with significantly higher scores on Paternal Abuse, and lower scores on General Attachment, Maternal Encouragement, Maternal Freedom Release, and Paternal Freedom Release in patients

Summary

Introduction

Nightmares are associated with parental bonding styles and various psychiatric disorders, but the exact connections between different nightmare experience features and family relationships in healthy volunteers and nightmare disorder patients are still unclear. Frequent nightmares of at least once per week, happen in about 5% of population [2,3,4]; while nightmare disorder, defined as repeated occurrences of nightmare and the consequent disturbance resulting in clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning [1], is prevalent in 37.3% mood disorders, 15.6% anxiety disorders, 66.7% posttraumatic stress disorder, and 31.1% personality disorders [5]. The exact etiopathology of nightmares is still unclear. One of the more comprehensive models to date is the neurocognitive model [7], which highlights the roles of both affect load and affect distress in producing nightmares. Affect load is the combined influence of stressful and emotionally negative events on an individual’s capacity to regulate emotions, and nightmares occur when

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