Impact of Personality Functioning on Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Panic Disorder: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

Although research has demonstrated the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for the treatment of panic disorder (PD), some patients do not have an adequate response to this treatment. Several previous studies found that personality functioning was a prognostic indicator of treatment outcome. The present study examined the effects of personality characteristics on outcome of 18 PD patients treated with a 12-week trial of CBT. Results of this study indicated that although looking at the presence of significant scale elevations on the Millón Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) yielded no outcome differences, treatment responders showed relative differences in specific personality characteristics (lower initial scores on borderline, histrionic, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, aggressive/sadistic, and self defeating scales, and higher initial scores on the compulsive scale). Additionally, the entire group of panic disorder patients showed global improvement in personality functioning with changes on each MCMI-II scale from pre- to post-treatment. Findings are discussed in terms of the utility of assessing personality characteristics in PD patients, dimensional versus categorical assessment of personality, and the impact of CBT on personality.