Volume 22, Issue 5 (11-2019)                   J Arak Uni Med Sci 2019, 22(5): 90-99 | Back to browse issues page


XML Persian Abstract Print


Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:

Sepahvand T, Moradi J. Comparing Generalized and Social Anxiety Disorders Between Sinistral and Dextral Children With Depression Symptoms. J Arak Uni Med Sci 2019; 22 (5) :90-99
URL: http://jams.arakmu.ac.ir/article-1-6101-en.html
1- Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Arak University, Arak, Iran. , T-sepahvand@araku.ac.ir
2- Department of Motor Behavior and Sport Psychology, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Arak University, Arak, Iran.
Full-Text [PDF 4662 kb]   (1658 Downloads)     |   Abstract (HTML)  (2761 Views)
Full-Text:   (3304 Views)
 Introduction
Anxiety is among the most prevalent disorders [1]. In children and adolescents, its prevalence is 4.7%-9.1% worldwide [2]. The most anxiety types include Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Emotions significantly affect anxiety [6]; thus, anxiety and depression are comorbid conditions in children and adolescents [7]. Depression and anxiety in children might be related to their laterality status. However, the difference between sinistral and dextral depressed children in terms of GAD and SAD remains unclear. Studies have suggested that hemispheric lateralization defects (limb preference as an indicator for hemisphere dominance) are associated with the development of mental disorders [12 ،11]. Various studies also investigated the relationship between depression and lateralization in healthy populations. For example, sinistral individuals are significantly more prone to depressive symptoms than dextral individuals. However, it is difficult to identify a clear pattern in the relationship between handedness and depression [16]; in particular, the role of lateralization and depression concerning other disorders, like children's anxiety, remain undiscovered. However, Logue et al. [18] have documented that left-handedness is a phenotypic risk factor for mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, and increases the severity of such disorders.
There is evidence regarding the relationship between depression and anxiety and laterality. Prior research also explored the depression and anxiety levels among left- and right-handed individuals. Therefore, this study aimed to compare GAD and SAD in the nonclinical samples of depressed children with different lateral dominance (sinistral and dextral).
Participants and methods
This was a cross-sectional study with a causal-comparative design. The study population consisted of all primary students (fourth to sixth grade) of Arak Province, Iran, in the 2017-2018 academic year. The study samples were determined by a convenience sampling method. Prior to the study, they completed the following questionnaires: Children's Depression Inventory of Kovacs and Beck [23], Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale developed by Spitzer et al. [27], and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents developed by Masia-Warner et al. [29]. Then, those with depression scores of ≥19 were purposively selected and assigned into two groups of sinistral (n=31) and dextral (n=35). Their obtained data were compared using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA).
Results
The MANOVA results indicated a significant difference in GAD and SAD between the study groups [Wilks’ lambda= 0.594; F63,2= 21.547; Eta squared =0.406; P=0.001]. Univariate ANOVA test was used to investigate the between-group differences in terms of the dependent variables. The achieved results reported that depressed sinistral children had higher GAD scores, compared to depressed dextral children; however, they were not significantly different in terms of SAD scores.

Conclusion
The study results revealed that depressed sinistral children had higher GAD scores, compared to depressed dextral children; however, they were not significantly different in terms of SAD scores. Various studies have suggested that left-handed individuals generally exhibit more mental disorders (especially depression and anxiety), compared to right-handed individuals [11-17]; however, we found no study that accurately addressed the difference between depressed sinistral and dextral children in terms of GAD and SAD. 
The collected results revealed that depressed sinistral children exhibit more GAD scores. This finding is consistent with those of Logue et al. [18] and Bruder et al. [20]. Our study also reported no difference between the depressed sinistral and dextral children in terms of SAD; these data are consistent with those of Bruder et al. [20]. Furthermore, depression and anxiety are typically highly comorbid; the two groups of children with depression are expected to experience high anxiety levels; however, what justified the difference in anxiety levels between the two depressed groups was probably related to their lateral dominance. In other words, the depressive psychological context in sinistral children, compared to dextral children, makes them more susceptible to anxiety disorders, especially GAD. Therefore, left-handedness increases anxiety risk in depressed children.
Based on the results, in addition to preventing and treating depression, children require further preventive and treating measures for anxiety disorders, especially GAD; this helps to improve their health by reducing depression and anxiety. Therefore, it is recommended that mental health practitioners anticipate and implement specific programs and training for children with depression, especially sinistral ones.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines

The authors observed the standards of writing based on the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Publishers.
This study obtained its ethical approval from the Research Ethics Committee of Arak University of Medical Sciences (code: IR.ARAKMU.REC.1397.298).


Funding
This study was part of a research proposal approved by the Deputy of Research and Technology of Arak University (code:97/15017).
Authors' contributions
Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis: Tooraj Sepahvand; Investigation, resources, data curation, writing -original draft preparation, writing-review & editin: Tooraj sepahvand, Jalil Moradi.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements
 The authors would like to thank the Deputy of Research and Technology of Arak University.

References
  1. Ghaderi B, Mohammadkhani SH, Hassanabadi HR. Cognitive and metacognitive predictors of anxiety in adolescents. J Clin Psychol. 2016; 7(4):13-26.
  2. Polanczyk GV, Salum GA, Sugaya LS, Caye A, Rohde LA. Annual research review: A meta-analysis of the worldwide prevalence of mental disorders in children and adolescents. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2015; 56(3):345-65. [DOI:10.1111/jcpp.12381] [PMID] 
  3. Cremers HR, Roelofs K. Social anxiety disorder: A critical overview of neurocognitive research. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci. 2016; 7:218-32. [DOI:10.1002/wcs.1390] [PMID] 
  4. O’Toole MS, Zachariae R, Mennin DS. Social anxiety and emotion regulation flexibility: Considering emotion intensity and type as contextual factors. Anxiety Stress Coping. 2017; 30(6):716-24. [DOI:10.1080/10615806.2017.1346792] [PMID] 
  5. American Psychiatric Association (APA). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5. 5th ed. [Avadisyance H, Hashemi Minabad H, Arab Ghahestani D, Persian Trans.]. Tehtan: Roshd; 2015.
  6. Abedi Ghelich Gheshlaghi M, Soleymani AA, Yaghubi H. [The structural modeling of anxiety and depression disorders in Urumiya children and adolescent girls (Persian)]. J Clin Psychol. 2018; 10(3):49-61.
  7. Garber J, Weersing VR. Comorbidity of anxiety and depression in youth: Implications for treatment and prevention. Clin Psychol: Sci Pract. 2010; 17(4):293-306. [DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2850.2010.01221.x] [PMID] [PMCID] 
  8. Sadock NJ, Sadock VA, Ruiz P. Kaplan and sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral sciences/clinical Psychiatry. 11th ed. [Rezaei F, Persian Trans.]. Tehran: Arjmand; 2015.
  9. Tillfors M, El-Khouri B, Stein MB, Trost K. Relationships between social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and antisocial behaviors: Evidence from a prospective study of adolescent boys. J Anxiety Disord. 2009; 23:718-24. [DOI:10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.02.011] [PMID] 
  10. Turk CL, Heimberg RG, Luterek JA, Mennin DS, Fresco DM. Delineating emotion regulation deficits in generalized anxiety disorder: A comparison with social anxiety disorder. Cognit Ther Res. 2005; 29:89-106. [DOI:10.1007/s10608-005-1651-1] 
  11. Goodarzi N, Dabbaghi P, Valipour H, Vafadari B. Pilot study: The role of the hemispheric lateralization in mental disorders by use of the limb (eye, hand, foot) dominance. Basic Clin Neurosci. 2015; 6(2):101-6.
  12. Esteves M, Marquesa P, Magalhãesa R, Castanhoa TC, Soares JM, Almeidaa A, et al. Structural laterality is associated with cognitive and mood outcomes: An assessment of 105 healthy aged volunteers. NeuroImage. 2017; 153:86-96. [DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.03.040] [PMID] 
  13. Siddiqi SU, Giordano BP. Left-handedness in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Intern Med Rev. 2018; 4(1):1-10.
  14. Bruder GE, Alvarenga J, Abraham K, Skipper J, Warner V, Voyer D, et al. Brain laterality, depression and anxiety disorders: New findings for emotional and verbal dichotic listening in individuals at risk for depression. Laterality. 2016; 21(4-6):525-48. [DOI:10.1080/1357650X.2015.1105247] [PMID] [PMCID] 
  15. Li M, Xu H, Lu S. Neural basis of depression related to a dominant right hemisphere: A resting-state fMRI study. Behav Neurol. 2018; 1:1-10. [DOI:10.1155/2018/5802634] [PMID] [PMCID] 
  16. Denny K. Handedness and depression: Evidence from a large population survey. Laterality. 2009; 14(3):246-55. [DOI:10.1080/13576500802362869] [PMID] 
  17. Bruder GE, Stewart JW, McGrath, PJ. Right brain, left brain in depressive disorders: Clinical and theoretical implications of behavioral, electrophysiological and neuroimaging findings. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2017; 78:178-91. [DOI:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.04.021] [PMID] 
  18. Logue DD, Logue RT, Kaufmann WE, Belcher HME. Psychiatric disorders and left-handedness in children living in an urban environment. Laterality. 2015; 20(2):249-56. [DOI:10.1080/1357650X.2014.961927] [PMID] 
  19. Lyle KB, Chapman LK, Hatton JM. Is handedness related to anxiety? New answers to an old question. Laterality. 2012; 18(5):1-16. [DOI:10.1080/1357650X.2012.720259] [PMID] 
  20. Bruder GE, Wexler BE, Stewart JW, Price LH, Quitkin FM. Perceptual asymmetry differences between major depression with or without a comorbid anxiety disorder: A dichotic listening study. J Abnorm Psychol. 1999; 108(2):233-9. [DOI:10.1037/0021-843X.108.2.233] [PMID] 
  21. Bruder GE, Schneier FR, Stewart JW, McGrath PJ, Quitkin F. Left hemisphere dysfunction during verbal dichotic listening tests in patients who have social phobia with or without comorbid depressive disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 2004; 161:72-8. [DOI:10.1176/appi.ajp.161.1.72] [PMID] 
  22. Heller W, Nitschke JB. The puzzle of regional brain activity in depression and anxiety: The importance of subtypes and comorbidity. Cogn Emot. 1998; 12:421-47. [DOI:10.1080/026999398379664] 
  23. Kovacs M, Beck AT. An empirical-clinical approach toward a definition of childhood depression. In: Schulterbrandt JG, Raskin A, editors. Depression in Childhood: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Conceptual Models. New York: Raven Press; 1977.
  24. Smukher MR, Craighead WE, Craighead LW, Green BJ. Normative and reliability data for the children’s depression inventory. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 1986; 14(1):25-39. [DOI:10.1007/BF00917219] [PMID] 
  25. Kovacs, M. Children’s depression inventory: Manual. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems; 1992.
  26. Dehshiri GR, Najafi M, Shikhi M, Habibi Askarabad M. [Investigating primary psychometric properties of Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) (Persian)]. J Fam Res. 2009; 5(2):159-77.
  27. Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JBW, Lowe B. A Brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder. Arch Intern Med. 2006; 166:1092-7. [DOI:10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092] [PMID] 
  28. Naeinian MR, Shaeiri MR, Sharif M, Hadian M. [To study reliability and validity for a brief measure for assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) (Persian)]. Clin Psychol & Pers. 2011; 3(4):41-50. 
  29. Masia-Warner C, Storch EA, Pincus DB, Klein RG, Heimberg RG, Liebowitz MR. The Liebowitz social anxiety scale for children and adolescents: An initial psychometric investigation. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2003; 42(9):1076-84. [DOI:10.1097/01.CHI.0000070249.24125.89] [PMID] 
  30. Dadsetan P, Anari A, Saleh Sedghpour B. [Social anxiety disorders and drama-therapy (Persian)]. J Iran Psychol. 2008; 4(14):115-23.
Type of Study: Original Atricle | Subject: psychology
Received: 2019/07/6 | Accepted: 2019/09/7

Add your comments about this article : Your username or Email:
CAPTCHA

Send email to the article author


Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

© 2024 CC BY-NC 4.0 | Journal of Arak University of Medical Sciences

Designed & Developed by : Yektaweb