IS THE COURSE OF PANIC DISORDER THE SAME IN WOMEN AND MEN

Objective: Panic disorder with or without agoraphobia has a chronic re lapsing course. Factors associated with poor outcome include early ons et of illness and phobic avoidance. Several, bur not all, authors have found a worse clinical course for women. Using observational, longitu dinal data from the Harvard/Brown Anxiety Disorders Research Program, the authors analyzed remission and symptom recurrence rates in panic p atients with respect to sex. Method: Male and female patients (N=412) in an episode of panic with or without agoraphobia were assessed by st ructured interview and prospectively followed for up to 5 years. Data on remission, symptom recurrence, and comorbid psychiatric conditions for each sex were compared. Results: There were no significant differe nces between men and women in panic symptoms or level of severity at b aseline. Women were move likely to have panic with agoraphobia (85% ve rsus 75%), while men were more likely to have uncomplicated panic (25% versus 15%). The rates of remission for panic with or without agoraph obia at 5 years were equivalent in men and women (39%). Of the subject s who achieved remission, 25% of the women and 15% of the men reexperi enced symptoms by 6 months. Recurrence of panic symptoms continued to be higher in women (82%) than melt (51%) during the follow-up period a nd tl,as not influenced by concurrent agoraphobia. Conclusions: This s tudy extends previous findings by showing that not only are women more likely to have panic with concurrent agoraphobia, but they are more l ikely than men to suffer a recurrence of panic symptoms after remissio n of panic.