MISINTERPRETATION OF BODY SENSATIONS IN PANIC DISORDER

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.