2-PHASE TREATMENT OF PANIC DISORDER AND POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDERWITH ASSOCIATED PERSONALITY FEATURES RESULTING FROM CHILDHOOD ABUSE -CASE-STUDY

The treatment of a woman diagnosed with panic disorder with Agoraphobi a and posttraumatic stress disorder and maladaptive personality featur es resulting from childhood sexual and physical abuse is described. Th e treatment consisted of nine sessions of cognitive behavior therapy ( CBT) for Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia and nine sessions of implosiv e therapy (IT) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. CBT decreased scores on the clinical scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), but did not reduce revised Impact of Event Scale (IES) scores, or Dim ensional Assessment of Personality Problems-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP- BQ). IT decreased scores on the IES and the DAPP-BQ, and further reduc ed scores on the PAI. The results are discussed with regard to Levis' (1985) implosive theory of psychopathology, which suggests that psycho pathology can be explained by Pavlovian conditioning of serial cues an d instrumentally conditioned avoidance responses. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd. All rights reserved.