Anxiety disorders (AD) are by far the most frequent psychiatric disorders, and according to epidemiologic data their chronicity, comorbidities, and negative prognostic constitute a public health problem. This is why it is necessary to continue exploring the factors which contribute to the incidence, appearance, and maintenance of this set of disorders. The goal of this study has been to analyze the possible relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and personality disorders (PersD) in outpatients suffering from AD. The sample was made up of 146 patients with AD from the Mental Health Center at the Health Consortium of Maresme, who were evaluated with the STAI, MSCEIT, and MCMI-II questionnaires. The main findings indicate that 89,4% of the patients in the sample met the criteria for the diagnosis of some PersD. The findings also confirm that patients with AD present a low EI, especially because of difficulties in the skills of emotional comprehension and regulation, and the lack of these skills is related to a higher level of anxiety and the presence of PersD. These findings suggest the need to consider emotional skills of EI and personality as central elements for the diagnosis and treatment of AD. 1. Introduction 1.1. Anxiety Disorders Due to their high population prevalence, their tendency to become chronic, comorbidities, and bad prognostic, anxiety disorders (AD) constitute an important public health problem [1]. Thus, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and substance abuse disorder are the most frequent psychiatric pathologies in the general population [2]. In the specific realm of phobic psychopathology, the rate of lifetime prevalence of panic disorder is around 4% and agoraphobia is about 2%, and 1% of the population is diagnosed with panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA) [3, 4]. All of these emotional problems linked to high levels of anxiety are frequently complicated due to the presence of medical and psychiatric comorbidities, where depressive disorders and substance abuse from Axis I of DSM-IV are most commonly associated with anxiety disorders [3]. 1.2. Personality Disorders Between 33.9% and 95% of patients with anxiety disorder meet the criteria for a personality disorder (PersD) [3, 5, 6], and 20.5% of patients meet criteria for more than one personality disorder simultaneously [7]. The most prevalent personality disorders are those in cluster C (especially Avoidant and Dependent), but it is also frequent to find personality disorders from cluster B (Borderline and Histrionic) and even Narcissist and Antisocial [1, 7]. It is less
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