Avoidance behaviour and major depression in panic disorder: a report from the Cross-National Collaborative Panic Study.
Avoidance behaviour and secondary major depression are both frequent in clinical samples of patients with panic disorder. Their status is unclear: indicators of severity of panic disorder or indicators of separate psychiatric disorders. Among the data of the Cross-National Collaborative Panic Study (n = 1,168) we found that especially avoidance behaviour defines more severe states of panic disorder (earlier age at onset, higher frequency of panic attacks and higher level of psychopathology); co-occurrence of major depression is less clearly associated with more severe panic disorder. The results are compatible with the DSM-III-R concepts of comorbidity of panic disorder and major depression and of subtyping panic disorder by avoidance behaviour.
Maier
W
W
Department of Psychiatry, University of Mainz, West Germany.
Rosenberg
R
R
Argyle
N
N
Buller
R
R
Roth
M
M
Brandon
S
S
Benkert
O
O
D000328:Adult; D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D000569:Americas; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005060:Europe; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D010200:Panic; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic