The epidemiology of panic symptomatology and agoraphobic avoidance

Abstract

In a random community survey of 1,498 urban adults age 18 to 64 years who were interviewed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS), the lifetime prevalence of panic disorder was 2.2% ± 0.4%. This was higher in women (3.4% ± 0.7%) than in men (0.9% ± 0.6%), and in those under the age of 45 years. Lifetime prevalence for panic attacks was 7.8% ± 0.7%. Panic attacks and panic disorder had a similar distribution by age and sex, with higher rates in women than men, and also in the under 45 age groups. The panic symptomatology reported by those subjects with panic attacks was similar to that described by subjects meeting full criteria for panic disorder. The lifetime prevalence of phobic disorders was 10.7% ± 0.9% and was more common in women (14.6% ± 1.3%) than in men (6.8% ± 1.3%). The lifetime prevalence of agoraphobia was 3.8% ± 0.5%. The occurrence of panic attacks and phobic disorders were frequently related, and in agoraphobic subjects those with more severe agoraphobic avoidance reported more panic symptoms. Indeed, among agoraphobic subjects with at least moderate agoraphobic avoidance, nearly all had either panic attacks or major depression. Subjects with panic attacks and moderate agoraphobic avoidance compared with patients with panic attacks alone, especially when panic symptoms appear before the age of 15, are more likely to have grown up in a family where there was parental conflict, are more likely to have left school at a younger age and without school exams, and are likely to have had more symptoms of a childhood conduct disorder.