THE EFFECT OF PERSONALITY-DISORDERS AND ANXIOUS-DEPRESSIVE COMORBIDITY ON OUTCOME IN PATIENTS WITH UNIPOLAR DEPRESSION AND WITH PANIC DISORDER AND AGORAPHOBIA

A sample of depressed and/or anxious inpatients were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Axis I and II diagnoses. M easures of symptoms were obtained at hospital admission, at discharge, and at 1-year follow-up. In a subsample of 77 patients with unipolar depression who received psychodynamically oriented treatment, paranoid and dependent PD were related to poorer outcome immediately after tre atment. Avoidant PD was negatively related to improvement from posttre atinent to 1-year follow-up. The presence of anxiety in the depressed patients did not influence outcome. In a subsample of 36 patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia who received combined behavioral and p sychodynamic treatment, neither PDs nor presence of unipolar depressio n predicted immediate outcome. However, avoidant PD was negatively rel ated, whereas presence of unipolar depression was positively related t o improvement from post-treatment to 1-year follow-up. These results s uggest that it may be useful to address possible avoidant traits in th e treatment of patients with depression and/or panic disorder with ago raphobia.