FREQUENCY OF PANIC AS AN OUTCOME MEASURE IN AGORAPHOBIA RESEARCH - LATENT EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE ON PANIC

The frequency of panic attacks during treatment of patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia was studied with an event sampling method. T reatment comprised panic management techniques followed by exposure in vivo. Results revealed that the frequency of panic attacks varied con siderably across patients. There was a group of patients that responde d to treatment with a decrease in both panic attacks and avoidance. An other group of patients, however, experienced little panic in the init ial phase of treatment, but during the exposure phase they evidenced a ll increase in the frequency of panic attacks along with a decrease in avoidance. Consequently, merely focusing on panic frequency could lea d to considering some patients as treatment failures, while in fact th ey did respond to the treatment. Recommendations for the use of panic attack frequency as an outcome measure in the evaluation of treatment for panic disorder with agoraphobia are discussed.