Je. Hecker et al., ACCEPTABILITY OF PANIC DISORDER TREATMENTS - A SURVEY OF FAMILY-PRACTICE PHYSICIANS, Journal of anxiety disorders, 7(4), 1993, pp. 373-384
The acceptability of three approaches to treating panic disorder was s
tudied. One hundred eighteen family practice physicians read descripti
ons of imipramine therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy, and client-cent
ered therapy of panic disorder and completed treatment acceptability m
easures for each description. The subjects also described their usual
treatment and referral practices with panic disorder clients and rank-
ordered the three forms of treatment based upon their beliefs about tr
eatment effectiveness. Cognitive-behavior therapy was evaluated more p
ositively than client-centered therapy on all measures of treatment ac
ceptability. Subjects' ratings of the acceptability of drug therapy te
nded to fall between cognitive-behavior therapy and psychotherapy, but
were not significantly different from either. Physicians reported tha
t they tend to treat panic disorder clients pharmacologically and refe
r for psychological treatment relatively infrequently. Pharmacotherapy
was ranked as the most effective intervention by most physicians, fol
lowed by cognitive-behavior therapy, and then by psychotherapy.