Panic disorder : a clinical study

الملخص EN

This study is concerned with the clinical and demographic aspects of panic disorder.

One hundred and fifty patients were interviewed in a private psychiatric clinic.

They were diagnosed according to DSM-III-R-criteria.

The results showed that the prevalence of panic disorder among anxiety disorders is rather high (14,5%).

This study showed a certain pattern of association between panic disorder and the other diagnostic categories.

Six subgroups were emerged.

Namely panic disorder alone (17,3%), or panic disorder with one of the following psychiatric categories : agoraphobia (12%), social phobia (10,6%), depression (26%), simple phobia (15,3%) and generalized anxiety (18,6%).

The results confirm the comorbidity with other diagnostic categories.

The results of comparison between the six sub-groups in relation to the severity of symptoms has failed to find differences among different diagnostic categories.

However, the correlation between the severity of symptoms and precipitating factors was weakly supported.

The cognitive component of the study was discussed.

Suggestions for future research were made.