PANIC DISORDER

A random sample of 3258 adult household residents of Edmonton, Alberta , Canada were interviewed by trained lay interviewers using the Diagno stic Interview Schedule (DIS), which gives DSM-III diagnostic data on each individual interviewed. This paper reports results for panic diso rder. Panic disorder was found to affect women primarily (female:male morbidity risk 2.2:1). The mean age of onset (first symptom) was 19.3 years for men and 21.5 years for women. Rarely did symptoms first occu r after the age of forty. The lifetime prevalence rate was 1.7% for wo men and 0.8% for men and the lifetime morbidity risk was 3.7% for fema les and 1.7% for males. All twelve panic symptoms were found to be hig hly specific for panic disorder. Women complained of more (means = 8.0 ) symptoms than men (means = 6.0). On average 7.3 symptoms were report ed. Those with panic disorder showed increased lifetime prevalence rat es for major depressive episode (73.4%), alcohol abuse/dependence (54. 2%), drug abuse/dependence (43%) and phobia (44.2%). Altogether, 90.4% of those with panic disorder also met criteria for another DSM-III di agnosis, which was 2.7 times the rate in those who did not have panic disorder.