Impairment of work productivity in panic disorder patients

Panic disorder (PD) has a critical impact on productivity at the workplace. This study aimed to identify the lost productivity time (LPT) for patients with PD. It also assessed change in LPT for patients with PD after 12 weeks of treatment with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), compared with healthy controls.

Working patients diagnosed with PD without other major medical or psychiatric illness were enrolled at outpatient psychiatric clinics (N=108). Age and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited through advertisement (N=108). Health and productivity, PD symptoms, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Korean version of the World Health Organization's Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (HPQ), the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS), and the Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression (HAM-D), respectively at baseline, week 4, and week 12.

At baseline, the PD group showed significantly higher LPT compared to the control group (103.02 vs. 47.28h in the past 4 weeks). After 12 weeks of treatment, the PD group displayed significant clinical improvement as well as improved productivity with a marked reduction in LPT. Among the patients who completed the treatment, LPT due to PD was reduced from 104.38 to 55.15h in the past 4 weeks.

There may be selection bias due to case-control study design.

These data suggest that, after the treatment, there was significant improvement in clinical symptoms, and that productivity loss due to PD was almost entirely recovered to the level of healthy controls after 12 weeks of psychiatric outpatient treatment.