Cognitive accounts of panic predict that panic disorder patients will
be particularly prone to misinterpret autonomic sensations. Several st
udies have produced results consistent with this prediction, but each
is open to alternative interpretation. To clarify matters, 2 studies a
dministered the Body Sensations Interpretation Questionnaire (BSIQ) to
panic patients and controls. Panic patients were more likely to inter
pret ambiguous autonomic sensations as signs of immediately impending
physical or mental disaster and were more likely than other anxiety di
sorder patients and nonpatients to believe these interpretations. In a
3rd study, a brief version of the BSIQ was shown to have satisfactory
test-retest reliability, to change with treatment, and to discriminat
e treatments that varied in their effects on panic.