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Is a combined therapy more effective than either CBT or SSRI alone? Results of a multicenter trial on panic disorder
F J van Apeldoorn1, W J P J van Hout, P P A Mersch
1University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. f.j.van.apeldoorn@psy.umcg.nl
Objective:
To establish whether the combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy (SSRI) was more effective in treating panic disorder (PD) than either CBT or SSRI alone, and to evaluate any differential effects between the mono-treatments.
Method:
Patients with PD (n = 150) with or without agoraphobia received CBT, SSRI or CBT + SSRI. Outcome was assessed after 9 months, before medication taper.
Results:
CBT + SSRI was clearly superior to CBT in both completer and intent-to-treat analysis (ITT). Completer analysis revealed superiority of CBT + SSRI over SSRI on three measures and no differences between CBT and SSRI. ITT analysis revealed superiority of SSRI over CBT on four measures and no differences between CBT + SSRI and SSRI.
Conclusion:
Both the mono-treatments (CBT and SSRI) and the combined treatment (CBT + SSRI) proved to be effective treatments for PD. At post-test, CBT + SSRI was clearly superior to CBT, but differences between CBT + SSRI and SSRI, and between SSRI and CBT, were small.
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