A Comparison of the Clinical Features between Panic Disorder with and without Agoraphobia

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to investigate the differences of the clinical feature between panic disorder with agoraphobic patients and panic disorder without agoraphobic patients. METHODS: Two hundred nine patients meeting the criteria of DSM-IV panic disorder were recruited. One group was panic disorder with agoraphobia(n=78, 42 male(53.8%), mean age 37.6+/-9.9 years), another was panic disorder without agoraphobia(n=131, 81 male(61.8%), mean age 40.5+/-10.3 years). The numbers and frequency of panic symptoms were compared between two groups with t-test, and the logistic regression analysis were used for predicting panic disorder with agoraphobia. RESULTS: The number of panic symptoms during panic attack was significantly higher in the group of panic disorder with agoraphobia than the group of panic disorder without agoraphobia(p<0.05). 'Sweating', 'nausea or abdominal distress', 'fear of losing control of going crazy', 'chills or hot flushes' were more frequent in the group of panic disorder with agoraphobia(p<0.05). Among panic symptoms on logistic regression analysis, 'sweating', 'nausea or abdominal distress', 'fear of losing control or going crazy' turned out to correlate significantly with risk of development of agoraphobia in panic disorder. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the frequency of some symptoms during panic attack may be a predictor of agoraphobia in patients with panic disorder.