Impact of panic attacks on rehabilitation and quality of life among persons with severe psychotic disorders

Objective: The study evaluated data from a sample of persons with severe ps ychotic disorders to determine whether those with and without comorbid pani c attacks differed in rates of comorbidity of other psychiatric disorders, in quality of life, and in rehabilitation outcomes. Methods: A total of 120 individuals with psychotic disorders were assessed with the Center for Epi demiologic Studies-Depression scale, the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, the General Health Questionnaire, the Global Assessment of Funct ioning scale, and several quality-of-life measures at baseline and four and a half months after they had participated in a social rehabilitation progr am. Multivariate analyses of variance and Pearson's chi square tests were u sed to compare baseline and follow-up scores between individuals who did an d did not have panic attacks, Results: Eighteen (15 percent) of the partici pants who had severe psychotic disorders also had panic attacks. Participan ts with this type of comorbidity had significantly higher rates of major de pressive disorder specific phobia, sedative abuse, polysubstance abuse, oth er substance abuse, and anorexia nervosa than participants who did not have panic attacks. Participants who had panic attacks also had poorer rehabili tative outcomes and poorer quality of life at baseline and at follow-up tha n participants who did not have panic attacks. Conclusions: These data are the first to show that comorbid panic attacks are associated with poorer re habilitative outcomes and poorer quality of life among individuals with sev ere psychotic disorders than among those mho have psychotic disorders witho ut panic attacks. Panic attacks may be a valuable prognostic indicator amon g persons with psychotic disorders and may have implications for treatment and rehabilitation.