An Evaluation of the Contributions of the Triple Vulnerability Model to the Prediction of Emotional Disorders

Abstract

Objectives The triple vulnerability model includes three types of vulnerability in terms of emotional disorders: general biological vulnerability, general psychological vulnerability, and disorder-specific psychological vulner-ability. Since previous studies have mostly addressed only one of these components, this study was conducted to examine all the three components of the triple vulnerability model at the same time in patients suffering from emotional disorders and normal people. Methods Using a causal-comparative design, 20 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, 20 patients with major depressive disorder, and 20 patients with generalized anxiety disorder were compared with 20 normal people (control group). The data were collected from March to June 2015. The patients and control group were selected through convenience sampling from the people attending private psychotherapy clinics in the city of Urmia and the normal people living in Urmia, respectively. The patients and control groups were matched with each other with regard to some demographic variables. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine the differences between the patients and the control group. Results Patients suffering from generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and major depres-sive disorder were more vulnerable to general biological vulnerability and general psychological vulnerability (P=0.001). With regard to disorder-specific psychological vulnerabilities, a significant difference was found between the patients with generalized anxiety and the control group where patients being more intolerant of uncertainty (P=0.001). We also found that obsessive-compulsive patients had more thought-action fusion and major depressive patients had more dysfunctional attitudes compared with the control group. Conclusion Because of the significant difference between patients with emotional disorders and control group in terms of the dimensions of the triple vulnerability model, it can be argued that this model could be envis-aged as comprehensive and suitable etiological and diagnostic criteria for these patients.