Patterns of comorbidity in panic disorder and agoraphobia

Diagnoses of comorbid disorders were determined in a sample of 54 patients with panic disorder as defined in DSM-III-R. The sample was divided into the following three groups: (1) uncomplicated panic disorder (PDU); (2) panic disorder with mild agoraphobia (PDM); and (3) panic disorder with moderate to severe agoraphobia (PDA). In comparison with patients with PDU, patients with PDA had higher comorbidity rates in general, received multiple comorbid diagnoses more frequently, had a higher prevalence of major depression, dysthymia, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and scored higher on most measures of self-rated psychopathology. These findings support the notion that PDA may be a disorder essentially different from PDU.