[One-year outcome of panic disorder].

In this study we investigated the one-year outcome of panic disorder. The subjects were 169 panic disorder patients (69 males, 100 females; mean age 36.5 years), who attended the outpatient clinic of the Department of Psychiatry, Showa University Hospital, from September to December 1993. The outcome study was performed from October to December 1994. Patients who were being treated at Showa University Hospital during the outcome study were interviewed in person, and those who were not were interviewed by telephone. The one-year outcome of 100 patients (32 interviewed in person and 68 interviewed by telephone; 37 males, 63 females; mean age 39.5 years) was assessed. That of the remaining 69 patients was not assessed because they did not provide informed consent or had moved during the last year. The patients who were assessed (N = 100) were older and exhibited less severe phobic avoidance on their first visit to the clinic than those who were not assessed (N = 69). The frequency of panic attacks, and the severity of phobic avoidance and anticipatory anxiety decreased significantly between the time of the patients' first visit to the clinic and the time of the outcome study. Panic attacks, phobic avoidance and anticipatory anxiety disappeared in 27.0%, 32.9% and 13.6% and decreased in frequency or severity in 61.8%, 62.0% and 61.4% of the cases, respectively. Seventy-three patients felt that the severity of their panic disorder symptoms decreased between the time of the outcome study and the time of their first visit to the clinic, 20 felt that it had not changed and 7 felt that it had increased worse. The phobic avoidance and anticipatory anxiety at the time of the patients' first visit to the clinic were more severe, and the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale score was lower in the case of the former group of patients than in that of the latter two groups.