INFREQUENT PANIC ATTACKS - PSYCHIATRIC COMORBIDITY, PERSONALITY-CHARACTERISTICS AND FUNCTIONAL DISABILITY

Primary care patients with infrequent panic attacks were found to have similar levels of disability in their social, family and vocational f unctioning to patients who met DSM-III-R criteria for panic disorder. Both panic subgroups had significantly more functional disability than controls. Patients with panic and infrequent panic had significantly more Axis I psychiatric comorbidity than primary care controls but sim ilar levels of medical comorbidity. Patients with panic disorder had a significantly higher prevalence of one or more other lifetime psychia tric diagnoses, current major depression, and current DSM-III-R depres sive symptoms compared to patients with infrequent panic, Patients wit h infrequent panic scored as high on the NEO personality measure of ne uroticism as patients with panic disorder, and both panic subgroups ha d significantly higher neuroticism levels than controls.