Childhood antecedents to panic disorder in referred and nonreferred adults.
OBJECTIVE
We used a recursive partitioning method to examine antecedent childhood anxiety disorders in large samples of referred and nonreferred subjects with and without panic disorder.


METHODS
Referred subjects included adults treated for panic disorder (n = 131) and comparison adults with neither major anxiety nor mood disorders (n = 61). The nonreferred adult group derived from an opportunistic sample originally ascertained through family studies of probands with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), yielding 58 adults with panic disorder and 587 who were free of major anxiety and mood disorders.


RESULTS
The majority of referred (65%) and nonreferred (52%) adults with panic disorder had antecedent childhood anxiety or disruptive behavior disorders. Classification and Regression Trees (CART) analysis showed that both separation anxiety disorder and overanxious disorder were independent predictors of subsequent panic disorder in both referred and nonreferred samples.


CONCLUSIONS
These results confirm and extend previously reported findings by documenting that childhood anxiety disorders are important antecedent risk factors for panic disorder, independently of referral bias.
Biederman
Joseph
J
Pediatric Psychopharmacology Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. jbiederman@partners.org
Petty
Carter
C
Faraone
Stephen V
SV
Hirshfeld-Becker
Dina R
DR
Henin
Aude
A
Rauf
Amanda
A
Scott
Megan
M
Pollack
Mark
M
Rosenbaum
Jerrold F
JF
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000523:psychology; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors