The New Hamburg-Hannover Agitation Scale in Clinical Samples: Manifestation and Differences of Agitation in Depression, Anxiety, and Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

Background/Aims: Agitation is a burdening phenomenon that occurs in a variety of psychiatric disorders. The aim of this study was to give a first direction for agitation occurrence in depression, anxiety disorder, and borderline personality disorder (BPD) as well as in healthy controls with and without psychiatric record. Methods: Using the Hamburg-Hannover Agitation Scale (H₂A), an instrument that allows for the measurement of agitation independently of the presence of a specific disorder, a patient sample (n = 158) and a healthy control group (n = 685) with (n = 94) and without (n = 591) psychiatric record were examined. The data were mainly analysed using ANOVAs and post hoc tests. Results: Patients showed significantly higher H₂A agitation levels than healthy controls. Within the clinical sample, BPD patients exhibited the strongest manifestation of agitation, scoring significantly higher than the depression and the anxiety disorder sample, while these two subgroups did not significantly differ from each other. Moreover, healthy subjects with a psychiatric record experienced a significantly stronger agitation than subjects without a psychiatric record. Conclusion: Further studies are needed with larger, more balanced, and differentiated sample sizes including a wider range of clinical pictures. The results demonstrate that agitation occurs and differs in psychiatric patients as well as in healthy controls.

Screening for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in borderline personality disorder

“…ADHD may not have been diagnosed during childhood, or patients may not remember having been diagnosed. Furthermore, several features of BPD overlap with those of ADHD, including emotional instability and dysregulation (affective lability, hot temper, and stress intolerance) (Skirrow and Asherson, 2013), low self-esteem (Harpin et al, 2016), interpersonal deficits (Perroud et al, 2017), impulsivity (Prada et al, 2014), inner restlessness (Jung et al, 2016), and risk-taking behavior (Fossati et al, 2001). The complexities of symptom overlap and comorbidity create a particular problem for general adult mental health services, to which patients with BPD are often referred, but where experience of the diagnosis and clinical management of ADHD is often lacking.…”

Viewing an alpine environment positively affects emotional analytics in patients with somatoform, depressive and anxiety disorders as well as in healthy controls

“…This underlines the theory that there is a continuum of health and disease also for somatoform, depressive and anxiety disorders, and that mechanisms of overtly ill patients are also present in individuals with sub-syndromal forms of psychosomatic disorders pointing towards general mechanisms of mental health [24]. The inverse correlation of arousal while viewing neutral pictures (negatively with resilience and positively with perceived stress) were mostly due to patients´values: They are more jittery or aroused at baseline which fits well with their predominant diagnoses of somatoform, depressive and anxiety disorders [21].…”

Viewing an alpine environment positively affects emotional analytics in patients with stress-related psychiatric disorders and healthy controls

“…This underlines the theory that there is a continuum of health and disease also for stress-related psychiatric disorders, and that mechanisms of overtly ill patients are also present in individuals with sub-syndromal forms of psychosomatic disorders pointing towards general mechanisms of mental health (Keyes 2007). The inverse correlation of arousal while viewing neutral pictures (negatively with resilience and positively with perceived stress) were mostly due to patients´ values: They are more jittery or aroused at baseline which ts well with their predominant diagnoses of stress-related psychiatric disorders (Jung et al 2016).…”