COGNITIVE SPECIFICITY IN PANIC AND DEPRESSION - IMPLICATIONS FOR COMORBIDITY

Previous studies of cognitive specificity in depression and anxiety di sorders have established reliable profiles of depressive cognitions, a nd to a somewhat lesser extent, panic-related cognitions. The present study examines cognitive specificity in pure diagnostic groups of pati ents with panic disorder or major depression and compares cognitive pr ofiles in these single diagnosis groups to those observed in a group o f individuals with comorbid panic and depression. In addition to Beck' s Cognition Checklist, we introduce a cognition inventory that include s subscales for panic and depression along with somatic preoccupation, social fears, and worry Good specificity was found for panic and depr ession cognitions in the pure diagnostic groups, and the comorbid grou p was equivalent to the pure groups on these measures. However the com orbid group was also significantly more troubled by less prototypical cognitions concerning social-evaluative fears and somatic preoccupatio n. These results suggest that individuals with comorbid depression and panic may hold additional maladaptive beliefs beyond specific cogniti ons typically associated with each disorder alone.