Axis I and II comorbidity in Agoraphobia: Prediction of psychotherapy outcome in a clinical setting

The impact of concurrent Axis I and Axis II disorder diagnoses on the effic acy of psychotherapy in a clinical setting for panic disorder with agorapho bia was studied in a sample of 51 agoraphobic outpatients, Diagnoses were b ased on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R. The effects of sec ondary major depression, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder, and avoid ant personality disorder were examined via multiple regression analyses. Ma jor depression was associated with less improvement on phobic behavior at 6 -month follow-up, whereas dysthymia and avoidant personality disorder predi cted less reduction in the frequency of panic attacks at posttest and follo w-up, respectively, There was little evidence that generalized anxiety was associated with poorer outcome in this sample. Limitations to the internal validity of the study include uncontrolled use of medication and naturalist ic treatment during the follow-up period.