Behavioral treatment of panic disorder: A two-year follow-up

Abstract

Forty-one patients with panic disorder with mild or no agoraphobic avoidance, who participated in one of three cognitive-behavioral treatment conditions, were assessed six months and twenty-four months following treatment completion. Treatment consisted of either progressive muscle relaxation, interoceptive exposure therapy plus cognitive restructuring, or a combination of relaxation and interoceptive exposure therapy plus cognitive restructuring. Assessments included semi-structured diagnostic interviews, self-report inventories, and self-monitoring. The post-treatment results, presented in an earlier report, showed that panic attacks were more effectively controlled by interoceptive exposure and cognitive restructuring treatments than by relaxation training. Relative to the other treatment conditions, subjects in the relaxation condition evidenced less favorable response on measures of panic and general psychopathology across the follow-up periods as well. In contrast, patients in the interoceptive exposure plus cognitive therapy condition tended to either maintain or improve upon their post-treatment status over the two-year follow-up interval. Fully 81% of the patients in the latter condition remained panic-free at the 24-month assessment.