Pretreatment anxiety level as differential predictor in outpatients with panic disorder

The pretreatment anxiety level is supposed to be a very important unspecific treatment factor. Main purpose of this study is to test whether the patients' pretreatment anxiety level is a general or a specific predictor of treatment response and whether mildly, moderately, and severely anxious patients can be differentially characterized by other diagnostic and clinical variables. 103 patients (37 males, 66 females; mean +/- sd age 35.6 +/- 9.5 years), a subsample of the Second Phase of the Cross-National Collaborative Panic Study, were included in the present study. A high positive correlation of initial anxiousness with the number of panic attacks at the end of treatment was found, moreover high positive correlations with most other baseline assessments. Initially severely anxious patients are the severest ill patients with the least treatment response, and that in all treatment groups. The pretreatment anxiety level predicts the number of panic attacks as well as the degree of avoidance behavior in both drug groups, whereas it predicts anticipatory anxiety intensity in the placebo group.