A follow-up study on short-term treatment of agoraphobia

The differential effectiveness of three treatment packages for agoraphobia was tested. Patients received one of three short-term treatments: Breathing Retraining and Cognitive Restructuring, graded Self-Exposure in vivo, or a combination of both. No differential effects were found between the treatment conditions at posttest and at an 18 months follow-up. Improvement at follow-up assessment was associated with whether patients had further treatment during the follow-up period. No relationship was found between further improvement and demographic variables, pre- and posttest scores on psychological questionnaires or the use of medication at follow-up. Implications of these findings are examined.